Ectopia
by Veritas-amore
Summary: They had a disastrous relationship the past year that she's trying to forget and he's trying to revive for all the wrong reasons.
1. Part 1

**Title: Ectopia**

**Author: Veritas-amore**

**Disclaimer: I don't claim ownership to any part of Harry Potter, yada, yada, you know the rest.**

**Enjoy and review. **

Scorpius' eyes very reluctantly trained themselves off their target to look up at the owls as they soared into the Great Hall and sought out his haughty bronze owl immediately. He watched it glide towards him smoothly and ominously thought of what he would do to the bird if it didn't have the package he'd been waiting for.

Midas stopped before him and dutifully held out his leg in order for Scorpius to claim the envelope sealed to his leg. He knew by the heaviness of the envelope that this wasn't another doting letter from his mother or grandparents.

"Good boy," he cooed in a quiet, dark voice to the owl and briefly stroked his handsome feathers before he took flight once more.

Turning his attentions to the envelope he read the messy scrawl that bore his name.

_Scorpius Malfoy_

_The Slytherin Table_

_The Great Hall _

_Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

And on the back, the address of the very killable correspondent: Alaric McCarthy. Scorpius had almost been considering sending the bloody idiot a curse in an envelope if the package had come any later. It seemed luck favoured McCarthy to Scorpius' disappointment. He'd been looking for a victim to send them a curse disguised as a lovely package of sweets from home. Perhaps a Gryffindor would be a better candidate… plus he'd be around to witness his handiwork and piss himself laughing. A devious smirk befell his lips.

Not wanting to open the envelope here –because quite frankly that nepotistic old hag that lorded over the school (whom more courteous students referred to as Professor McGonagall) would put him in detention for the rest of the year if she caught him in possession of such things and his detention schedule was already quite full, thank you very much – he slipped it into his robe pocket and raised his pumpkin juice to his lips, deciding that a few more minutes of glaring wouldn't do anyone any harm.

"Malfoy's staring at you again," Albus had the indecency to point out and turn his gaze back from the Slytherin table. And here Rose sat wondering why in magical Merlin she'd though t having breakfast with Al at the Gryffindor table was such a good thing. The Gryffindors were too bloody chipper in the mornings for her tastes.

She shrugged noncommittally and wished he hadn't said a thing about the damn blond excuse of a wizard.

"I take it he's still sore that you broke up?" Al sniggered.

Rose's shoulders stiffened. She did not like being reminded. No, she loathed being reminded of what a grand time she'd had being Scorpius' Malfoy's girlfriend. "You'd have thought he'd have gotten over it with another long list of whores on his holiday in France, wouldn't you?" she said darkly and did not dare look up to the offending wanker. She knew he'd be staring and she knew his spitting grey gaze would imprison hers before he'd sneer deprecatingly at her and she'd avert her gaze. She'd thought it'd bore him after a few days, but no, six weeks into the school year and he was still glaring daggers at her.

"Perhaps he truly does like you," Albus mused and Rose awarded this psychological insight with a very venomous look. Yeah, that was sure to be it. Not.

"Or he's still smarting that I was the one to walk out and not him? I hear he doesn't graciously take having his ego wounded," Rose muttered icily and raised her coffee to her lips. She'd begun drinking it black this year in order to experience something so sharp so that the sight of Scorpius would come as less of a sting but no, nothing was as stinging, smarting, sharp and cutting as the sight of a sneering old flame with a different bimbo on his arm every week.

It wasn't that she still liked him. God, no. The number one spot on her homicides to commit list was now filled by his name… it was just that the daily reminder of what he'd done and was probably still doing was as harsh as a slap to the face. And a slap to the face each day was fast becoming overrated.

"What I don't get," Albus began with a tone that hinted at nothing good, "is why you're still so affected by him. Weren't you the one to call it quits?"

Yeah… nothing good. She hated how touchy-feely her Potter cousins could be. Lily was the worst with her gooey, girly heart-to-hearts but for a bloke, Albus was just as bad. Why on Earth had her aunt and uncle taught their kids about honest family relations? It was so passé. The latest vogue was to keep your filthy secrets to yourself and die from the horror and mortification they brought.

In any case, Albus certainly wasn't dying. He would be if he kept this conversation up though. Ravenclaws weren't prone to murder but Rose blamed these urges on the vilifying fact that she'd dated a Slytherin and that Slytherin had somehow rubbed off on her. How tainting.

"I'm not affected by him," Rose hissed, baring her teeth. "I just hate how he's such a jumped up fuckwit."

"At any rate, I'm just glad you're not with such a prick anymore. Really, Rose. Malfoy? Of all people? I can't even begin to ponder what you must've been thinking when he asked you out…"

A raged scowl pulled Rose' lips back into a snarl. She wished they'd go back to their debate of which team was going to sign up James as chaser first, the Wimbourne Wasps or the Montrose Magpies. The talk of Quidditch bored her but at least it had kept them off awkward topics. Awkward topics like Scorpius Malfoy.

"What have you got first?" she interrupted with unmistakable firmness in her voice. Albus took this as his cue to not digress more into the Malfoy topic than was safe. Rose had been a docile girl until recently and the change in her wasn't what most would term a welcome or a harmless one. She'd never been this cold, this detached and certainly never this passionate. He didn't believe her when she said she wasn't affected by him. He still saw the glint in her eyes whenever she looked over at the blond and the way she'd wander into her thoughts after passing him in the hall, the hard set of her features dissolving into something that was almost reminiscent. He didn't like it much and he didn't like that Scorpius Malfoy had made her become like this. When he subtly tried to hint at it, she'd scowl and vehemently lie.

"Defence against the Dark Arts. You?"

"Free period. I'll see you in charms?"

"Yeah," he smiled and took this as an end to their conversation for Rose had finally downed the last of her coffee and was putting a book back into her bag. "See you later."

She smiled in farewell and left the table. His eyes flickered to Slytherin table and he wasn't in the least bit surprised to find that Malfoy had also departed. He hoped Rose used a magnificently painful spell on him.

Rose passed Nathalie Banks on her way to the library but did not return the warm smile Nathalie sent her way. She tried to reason that it was because she was walking too fast for Nathalie to actually notice it but knew that she was just deluding herself. It was solely due to Nathalie having been hanging off Scorpius' arm last week at the Hogsmeade trip like a doe eyed, empty brained, magically enhanced breasted flobberworm that Nathalie clearly hadn't been before Scorpius.

She was glad that that change hadn't happened in her. Empty brained was not under any circumstances an adjective one used to describe the Ravenclaw Head Girl. But the change he'd wrought in her wasn't exactly that brilliant either, if a whole lot more acceptable than being doe eyed and empty brained and having her breasts magically enhanced. She was quite happy to say her breasts were in no need of enhancements, magical or otherwise. But this wasn't who she'd been. Rose Weasley had been a lovely, naïve girl, dedicated to her friends and studies and mostly callow when it came to relationships. Now she was just aloof and disinterested in everything around her and much too cynical to be considered openly approachable. This didn't do wonders for her Head Girl status. It wasn't just her but she'd noticed a definite drop in the amount of people who now came to her to solve their problems and sourly noted how the Gryffindor Head Boy had people flocking around him like thestrals on dead meat. Like the Gryffindors needed any more attention; they practically had McGonagall lapping up after their arses. She was a fair headmistress by all accounts but there was no denying the hints that pointed to her favouritism of the Gryffindors.

McGonagall did like Rose more than the rest of the Ravenclaws, however. Rose put it down to her parents have been former Gryffindors and two thirds of the trio that helped finish some sad little megalomaniac with a penchant for murder and immortality. Whether it was her constant Outstanding average that popularized her with the headmistress or her once friendly aura, McGonagall had liked her enough to make her Head Girl.

Rose was ready to bet McGonagall wasn't that thrilled at the decision now. She was almost unapproachable nowadays and even though she'd rather turn blue and sprout antlers out her backside than admit it, it was because of Scorpius, the fucked up little…. Rose took a deep breath in an obvious effort to calm herself down.

She was just passing through the history of magic corridor on the fourth floor when she felt herself being pushed into a classroom by a strong body as an arm wrapped around her waist. Opening her mouth to protest, she was exasperated to find that her oppressor had clamped their hand down on her mouth and she immediately ceased her struggling. She'd been in this position before – although the last time had been infinitely more fun- and she recognized the size and smell of that hand. It was his hand.

By the time they were safely in the classroom and the door was shut behind them, Rose had already had her wand out and she broke out of Scorpius' hold to turn and hold her wand aloft before his chest, her breathing slightly laboured.

Scorpius didn't so much as blink down at her wand. "Put that away, I'm not going to attack you," he sneered.

"Except you just did," Rose ground out and kept her wand in place.

"That's called overpowering. Keep this up though and I'll show you the real meaning of attack."

Rose snarled viciously. "You foul, despicable dog!"

Scorpius was unamused by her insult and did not call her on it. "We need a little talk," he stated rather calmly and walked around her to take his seat at the teacher's desk at the head of the classroom. What a gloriously patronizing move.

"I don't talk to you anymore, remember?" And she made for the door but a moment later and the lock of the door had turned. She knew _Alohomora_ wouldn't work; he didn't work like that -there were no loopholes in his plans- and hence turned round to face him angrily but not even thinking of putting her wand away.

He was smiling quite complacently, completely at ease. "Take a seat, Rose," he said in a voice that was misleadingly polite but the ordering tone behind it was unmistakable. "We might be here a while."

Grudgingly, Rose walked up to one of the front desks and cautiously sat down, wand still gripped tightly in hand. Scorpius noticed for his eyes flickered to her wand and he ghosted a smirk before he held her gaze once more.

"I think we should start dating again," he announced seriously, briefly inspecting his cuticles before he raised his gaze to take in her reaction. Rose let out a short, derisive laugh before she got up and turned to make for the classroom door.

"Nice talking to you, Malfoy," she mocked and raised her wand. If he wasn't planning on removing the spell she'd just have to blow the door open. Before she could utter the spell however, she'd found her wand flying out of her hand and she turned round in time to see Scorpius' outstretched hand catch it. Her face suffused with colour. How fucking overbearing!

"Give me back my wand," she hissed and marched up to him at the desk.

"I will on the promise that you'll sit and listen to what I have to say," he offered and Rose glowered toxically but nodded and snootily snatched her wand out of his hand before going to sit back at the desk.

"I'd rather feed myself to the nearest manticore than go out with you again," she told him scathingly. "So don't waste your breath much. Nothing you can say is going to make me change my mind."

Scorpius raised a supercilious eyebrow as if to say 'oh really?' and knotted his hands together before him. "This is the nice approach, Rose. Accept and you might not get to see the ugly approach."

"_This_ is nice?" she repeated and allowed another derisory laugh. "Always the gentleman, weren't you, Malfoy?"

"I'm only going to say this once more nicely: would you like to date again?"

Rose narrowed her eyes at him. "You knew I'd say no," she said shrewdly. "So that's not really why we're here are we?"

He awarded her astuteness with a small, approving and somehow always condescending smile. "Yes, I knew you'd disagree. But tell me, why do you think we are here?"

She was lightening fast in her answer. "So you can play the role of the resident mind fucker?"

Scorpius laughed but the sound was hollow. "Perhaps," he answered vaguely with an ambiguous wave of his hand. "So you say no to my proposal?"

"I'd say no to anything you've got to offer," Rose ungraciously spat. "What you did was vile and I have every reason to believe you'd do it again were I stupid enough to agree."

"You're not going to like this then," he said with a careless shrug and extracted an envelope out of his bag and threw it at her. Rose instinctively caught it to avoid being hit in the face and snarled at him, knowing he'd done that purpose before turning the envelope cautiously within her hands. She'd be damned if she didn't think he'd cursed the bloody thing…

"Open it, it's not going to eat you," he ordered, amused and enjoying being a bloody martinet too much.

Rose ripped open the envelope from one side and slid the contents onto the desk before her, her face earning a touch of bewilderment as she saw the many white backs of what were unmistakably pictures. Chancing a glance at Scorpius did nothing to calm the nauseating apprehension and foreboding she felt. He'd taken the liberty to push the chair he was sat on back in order to cross his feet before him on the desk, his hands behind his head in a complete picture of ease. But that wasn't what alarmed Rose. It was the dark grin upon his lips and the glint in his eyes. Rose found them strangely disconcerting.

She reached a slightly shaking hand and selected a picture at random before slowly turning it to look at its front, her heart hammering relentlessly within her chest. It temporarily froze as she laid eyes on the content of the picture and her eyes widened, her breathing becoming laboured. Before her was a very telling picture of her and Scorpius during happier times. Much…_happier_…. Times. Her head was thrown back against Scorpius' shoulder and her eyes closed in pleasure as Scorpius devoured the column of her neck. She was wearing nothing but a cream bra and Scorpius was shirtless, his hands exploring her sides lovingly.

Rose was shuddering. She knew it was because of the horror that he had the gall to even do something like this but she knew -she just knew- that a small part of her was shuddering at the reminder of how good it had been with Scorpius. If admittedly, only that part had been good with him.

"Try another one," Scorpius' voice advised gleefully and it seemed far away as Rose took heed to his words and extracted another picture. Scorpius was sat on a chair as she straddled him, her head bowed and focused on licking his chest as he held one hand at her waist and the other looked to be conspicuously between her legs. Another and another she turned until she'd seen all of them and was visibly distraught at having been reminded. The only comfort Rose took was that she was wearing the same underwear in most of them which meant he'd at least taken them during one session and not many. When she finally managed to find her voice and make sure it wasn't going to crack she looked up at him with a cold mien that was marred by the largeness of her eyes and the disbelief behind them.

"How could you?" she demanded furiously. This was just beyond cruel. "How dare you take these without my permission?"

"I don't need your permission to do what I want," he sneered.

"You need permission when what you're doing involves my integrity and dignity. _Incendio!_" she'd pointed her wand at the pictures and watched with satisfaction as a burning orange flamed devoured them and left nothing but ash on the desktop. "_Scourgify_."

Scorpius gave a large pseudo sigh. "Now there was absolutely no need for that, Rose," he admonished patronizingly. "I have copies." And he extracted another envelope and set it before him on the desk before he raised his wand and caused the envelope and pictures to shred into many tiny pieces. And he extracted another and another and another and desecrated each in turn. Rose had just looked on in astonishment and hurt.

She didn't understand how someone could be so cold.

Scorpius should've been born dim if he was going to come here without copies. He knew her hothead would cause her to try and get rid of the pictures and keep her world firmly happy and cheerful but alas, if there was a field in which Scorpius Malfoy had to excel it was destroying the happy and cheerful worlds of others. His demonstration had been needless but he wanted to prove to her that he wasn't joking around.

"Who took them?" she asked quietly. Her voice had dropped considerably but had not lost an ounce of venom. Scorpius loved how the Slytherin in her was on display to the pubic so much nowadays.

"Alaric McCarthy," he replied simply and slid his legs off the desk. "James' Potter best mate wasn't he? They say you shouldn't trust a Slytherin but it looks like the Gryffindors are fighting to change that adage aren't they? Shame you can't get him back, really. I would've liked to see you curse the plonker."

_So so so much_. He loved it when Rose Weasley lost control. She was a fiery beautiful thing to behold when she let go of all inhibitions and allowed her emotions to rule over her. Especially in bed.

"Just that one time?" she questioned still in that very effective low voice.

"Just once," he confirmed.

"Why?"

Because he'd needed good wank material at the time and pictures of him and Rose at it were the ultimate wank material. He didn't dare breathe a word of that to Rose however. So he shrugged. "Makes for good blackmail material. Just imagine the scandal I could cause by publishing these… our very own prim Head Girl engaging in some rather derogatory extra-curricular activities… enough to make you lose your badge, I'd say. Would you be willing to lose your position, Rose?"

Rose was visibly shaking with the anger and although he couldn't see, he was making an educated guess that her hands were clenched tightly beneath the desk, her knuckles a sure white. "Publish them, I don't give a shit."

Except she sort of did. Which was what made this so much fun. Although the fun of it wasn't the sole reason for Scorpius to do it. "You give a shit more than you care to let on. You've been working towards Head Girl since your third year and how disappointed will your mummy be when she learns her daughter has lost Head Girl due to a few trivial pictures?"

Rose quite suddenly smiled self-deprecatingly. "So, _this_ is why we're here," she concluded and a very bitter smile twisted her lips. "So you can blackmail me? Into what? I'm just _dying_ to know, Scorpius."

Scorpius left the teacher's desk and slowly approached her, knowing the situation felt too much like predator on prey for her comfort. But she stared defiantly back at him as he neared, daring him to do the worst. "You see, not only do those pictures make for good blackmail, they're also an excellent testimony to how fantastic the sex was. I miss the sex, Rose."

"Really?" she mocked cuttingly. "Because if the fifteen or so girls you've seen since school's started are anything to go by, I'd say your not missing sex at all. Tell me is it one girl a night or do you perhaps go for a little group action? Threesomes are nice but two girls seem too tame for a bastard like you."

"Well," Scorpius breathed as he leaned closer to her over the desk, his fingers lightly rising to brush her cheek. "You always did bring a certain level of excitement no matter the number."

Rose angrily smacked his hand away. "I wouldn't go near you again if you were the last guy on Earth. If it was a choice between you and the squid, I'd rather engage is bestiality than have your filthy person near me."

"It good to know you take comfort in the fact that the squid has more than enough…eh, _tentacles_, to keep you occupied. You used to be just fine with my cock and fingers but it would seem that you're insatiable."

"Fuck you," she snarled and had her wand underneath his chin immediately.

"Mmm, that's exactly what I want you to do," he groaned huskily. "It could be so good, Rose. Just say yes and we'll drop this ugliness."

She'd closed her eyes and set her lips in a tight line, her wand falling away from his throat as she fought for breath. He loved making her react like his.

"No," she said quietly after a while, her eyes snapping open to reveal the limpid azure of her irises. On any other girl, blue eyes were a complete bore, on Rose, they were pure exquisiteness. "No. You… you're foul and emotionless and utterly selfish," she said each word with a laboured breath as though the effort she was exuding into these words took everything from her. "You hurt me last year and I know you're going to hurt me now. No, I don't want this."

Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears and he sensed her voice was very close to cracking. He hoped she wouldn't cry. Scorpius despised it when girls cried. He wouldn't mind a bit of tears and to know that they were over him was a very satisfying thing but he was going to make her see reason and _not _cry.

"But what about Head Girl?" he teased maliciously, not caring that he was pushing every single one of her buttons and exploiting each weakness. He just wanted her damn it! "Say no and this time tomorrow that glistening badge is going to be on another girl's robes." His finger reached out to trace the letters embossed on the gleaming badge but she angrily slapped his hand away. That dear to her, huh?

"Fine," she said, the word coming out forced and wobbly through her clenched teeth. "I'll… I'll do whatever you want me to do just…just get rid of the pictures."

Scorpius grinned triumphantly. "The pictures stay. I'll hide them where no one has a hope of finding them but they stay. Deal?"

Rose mutely nodded.

"Good… now in exchange for such a kindness I want you to sleep with me."

Rose' head snapped up and he saw a few tear tracks on her cheeks but her brief vulnerability had melted away to loathing. "What?" she asked sharply.

"Dating you is taxing and tiresome and your many cousins wouldn't take kindly to it and self preservation ranks top in my priorities, so no dating. Just sex; once a week."

She was quiet for many long moments before she let out a strained. "Fine."

"Such a sweet, obliging girl," Scorpius cooed jeeringly and tucked a strand of her hair softly behind her ear. She did not react in any way possible but asked numbly. "Will you see others while we're at this… _arrangement_?"

Scorpius gave a lazy smirk. He hadn't met a girl he'd dated who wasn't overprotective of him. "I could not but it'd arouse suspicion and exciting as you undoubtedly are, Rose, my attentions are most likely not going to be occupied with just you."

Her shoulders slumped a little. He didn't care. He'd gotten what he wanted; a guaranteed few nights with Rose Weasley.

"One more thing," she began hoarsely. "How long is this to going to last?"

His hand slipped underneath her chin and he raised her face up in order to look at the shinning eyes. She was resigned in an acquiescent sort of way but he detected the defiance and the challenge in her face. Leaning down, he briefly caught her lips in a very teasing slow kiss –in which she refused to respond- before he pulled back and whispered delicately. "Until I get bored of you."

And then he made for the door, summoning his bag from the teacher's desk before he lifted the spell he'd cast on the door and left, an added sprinkle of malice on his lazily uplifted lips.

Rose forcefully pushed back the lump in her throat and the tears in her eyes. What more had she expected? Finding out that he'd taken pictures of them having sex to use as blackmail later on was an ego stroke like nothing else. As was his comment that he'd sleep with her and other girls at the same time –this was becoming familiar but that took absolutely nothing from the pain of it- and that he'd leave her when he tired of her. God, had a sicker bastard every graced these hallowed halls of hormones?

She could hardly believe she'd even agreed but he'd pushed her into a corner with no visible way of getting out. Sleep with him or lose Head Girl and face perpetual shame and disappointment. Rose couldn't bear the thought of disappointing her mother and losing Head Girl. Scorpius had been right; she'd been working towards this since her third year. She wasn't going to give it up lightly.

Were the pictures ever to be leaked to the student populace, Rose knew for a certain that she would flee the castle entirely, regardless of NEWTs, regardless of Head Girl and regardless of anything. She did not take that kind of shame and stigma.

In short, he'd trapped her as effectively as one could be trapped. Like being gagged, tied, straight-jacketed, thrown in a sack, then a padlocked wooden box and finally a safe large enough to fit a teenage girl before being flung into the ocean. She was that trapped.

But she knew there was another reason. Much as she denied and lied and tried to force the truth out of her veins, she couldn't refute the facts. His deal wasn't that unpleasant. She would enjoy it just as much as he. Like him, she'd also missed the sex. It wasn't like anything she'd ever experienced before. They'd always been wild, uncontrolled, fast, never tender and she'd loved the heat and euphoria of the moment every time. Sleeping with Scorpius Malfoy was like orgasming continuously whilst plummeting from a terrific height on a rollercoaster. Nothing could beat that level of excitement and for someone who'd lead an entirely inconspicuous existence Rose had found it terribly addicting to have these massive highs that only Scorpius had brought about.

She didn't even know why she was still so obsessed with him. He was as vile, repulsive and selfish as the male species came, he had the etiquette of a pig that didn't quite befit the society he'd been born into and was a master manipulator. He was her cousins' object of scorn and her father's only misgiving about her being at Hogwarts. He was, in quintessence, everything she did not want in a man.

Only he was. He was intelligent, he was obstinate, he was athletic, he was beautiful, he was powerful, he was virile and he had been hers. Except Scorpius Malfoy didn't take lightly to being anyone's possession. If anything, he was the possessor and Rose had been his for a few short weeks during the summer term of last year. What was more, he was never content with one possession. Once the gloss wore off, the novelty became old and he'd search for a new person to entertain his attentions.

It seemed Rose still had some gloss however. Why else would he cut a deal to sleep with her again? The thought that he might like her was an undisputedly far-fetched and unlikely one so she brushed that off and conceded that he was indeed just that selfish and wanted her for the sex.

She didn't care. Yeah, she didn't quite like him that much at the moment but she just wanted the sex again. And that was exactly what he was offering her. There had been no reason to not agree to the deal. Sure, the blackmail and the pictures were cruel and so very typical of him but in the end, it had been an effective way to get what he wanted. And he always got what he wanted.

In the distance, she heard the bell ring for the second period and slowly left the classroom, wondering how long it would take Scorpius to act on his deal.


	2. Part 2

**Part 2**

During breakfast the next morning Rose received a small note attached to the leg of a school owl.

_Out of Order girls' toilet on the sixth floor. 6 pm. Don't be late._

There was only one person who could manage to sound as puffed up and bossy on paper as he did in real life. She glanced up the length of the Slytherin table but did not find Scorpius. Stuffing the note into her bag, she made a mental note to arrive late just to piss him off.

Come six o'clock, Rose had set out from the Ravenclaw Tower towards the sixth floor, taking her sweet time in doing so and grinning that Scorpius would be beside himself with anger when she did show up. Needless to say, he was fuming by the time she entered at six fourteen.

"You're late," Scorpius snarled as he leaned against one of the stalls, his eyes stormy.

"Got held up," she lied with a shrug deigning not to divulge.

"No more hold ups the next time. I say six o'clock you be here six o'clock," he demanded and she sighed before nodding. She looked around at the dirty bathroom with its grimy basins and even grimier toilets with a look of displeased repulsion.

"Couldn't you find a cleaner place?" she asked tartly.

"This suits me just fine," he shrugged. "Dirty place for our dirty dealings; quite fitting isn't it?"

"No," Rose snapped. "I'm sorry that you don't seem to know that some people find it hard to get off when they're surrounded by filthy bogs."

Scorpius let out a colourful string of profanities. "You could've mentioned earlier you wanted a five star suite," he bit ungraciously. "Or do you only get off having a bed underneath you?"

Rose flushed. He knew perfectly well what the answer to that uncouth question was. "I don't mind doing it outside the bedroom," she hissed. "Hell, I love doing it outside the bedroom! But you could've been courteous enough to find a more hygienic place that suits the term 'place to have sex you've been blackmailed into'."

"So, not here?"

"Yes, not here. And not tonight. I've got rounds in a short while." She held back the wince that wanted to override her, knowing he wouldn't like this piece of information.

"Grand," he muttered ominously. "You can go now; I'm going to go fetch Samantha, I'm sure she'd appreciate the appeal of sex in a cubicle."

Ouch.

Being continuously reminded of the fact that he'd seek others to please him when she failed wasn't what one would catalogue 'something I'd like to happen to me on a daily basis.' Rose briefly wondered whether he'd said that to make her change her mind. No, she would not change her mind. She just couldn't see herself wrapped up in Scorpius and screaming for pleasure in a cubicle. Turning round, she left without a word.

She hid in a spare classroom until her rounds were due to begin, gripping her hair at the temples and breathing hard to avoid crying. Rose Weasley didn't cry damnit! Or at least, she didn't anymore. She'd used to though, over almost anything. A dead pet, an insult, the deliberately fake and heart-rending endings of the muggle movies she liked to watch over at her grandparents'… anything, really. After Scorpius however, she'd made a pact with herself to not be such a doormat and buck up. He wasn't worth it and neither were half of the things she used to cry over.

This was a pretty hurtful and perfectly aimed strike into the tear ducts though.

Samantha indeed! Scorpius' lacked a little taste when it came to his choice in girls. Not to say that Rose was tasteless but about three quarters of the girls he went out with fit the same mould: tall, endowed in the chest and backside areas and with enough brains to fill a… what? How smaller could one go after a teaspoon?

If Rose was going to be vain enough to think it then she'd admit that she was one of his more sensible choices in dating. She was fairly attractive with her peaches and cream complexion and the startling contrast between her viciously auburn hair and azure eyes but she had brains! Which was more than she could say for some of his more…_paltry_… choices. She could stimulate him with something more than just her body. Not that they did much talking back then.

Scoffing at her pathetic position, Rose pushed herself away from the desk she was sat on and made sure no wetness had tainted her eyes before she checked her watch and saw that her rounds were due to start. She went to meet the sixth year Prefect she would be sharing her rounds with, making a mental note not to pass the unused toilets on the sixth floor

It didn't take long for Scorpius to summon her to him again. He surreptitiously passed her a note during Defence Against the Dark Arts the next morning asking her to meet him in the Slytherin changing rooms after his practice and to make sure she had no rounds. Rose groaned at his taste in locations to have sex. Sure the changing rooms were better than the loos but it was still a changing room filled with the stench of seven boys' sweat and farts and heaven knows what else. She supposed she'd better not complain tonight otherwise he'd get nasty.

Besides, the libido in her argued that what does it matter where they have sex as long as they do have sex?

Which was logical. And surprising. When had libidos ever been logical?

"Do you want to come over to our common room, tonight?" Albus asked over lunch. "We're going to nick some food from the kitchens and have a small party, you know, being Lily's birthday and all."

Oh. Um… great sex or a cousin' birthday party?

Why not both?

"I'll come later on; I have a few essays I want to finish first."

Albus shrugged content with her answer. It wasn't that she was a swot but she was known to take homework seriously. One of the best advantages of homework was not actually learning anything but being able to use it as an excuse to get out of pretty much anything.

It was cold and raining and almost dark by the time she decided to leave the castle and sneak to the Quidditch pitch. She wrapped her jacket tighter around herself and hid beneath the stands to avoid being spotted by the Slytherin team as they wrapped up their practice. Sheltered from the rain and having nothing better to do, Rose took to inspecting Scorpius. He was a natural flier and looked completely at ease in the air as he shot quaffle after quaffle towards the keeper. It was hard not to like an athlete. Even just a little.

When the rain became progressively worse, the team flew down and headed for the changing rooms and Rose edged closer to the room still hidden underneath the stands. After a good while in which Rose managed to freeze her arse off she saw the six figures of the rest of the team leave at random and snuck in after she was sure Scorpius was the only one left inside. He was halfway dressed in only his school trousers when he turned to see her.

"You came," he stated unnecessarily.

"We have a deal, remember?" she said, pulling her scarf and gloves off and throwing them onto the bench seat that lined one wall of the changing rooms. "Why'd you get dressed?"

"So you can undress me," he replied simply and approached her, one hand already rising to pull the zipper of her jacket down. Rose' heart began to accelerate slowly.

"I don't want to undress you though," she said quietly as his hands ran up the length of her arms and returned with the jacket in tow this time where it fell to the floor at her feet. "I like being somewhat clothed whilst we're at it."

"Or maybe you're just cold," he muttered throatily as a breeze passed through the changing rooms. It _was_ cold.

"I'll be hot soon enough," she teased and smirked as he gripped her by the waist and pulled her closer, hissing at the implication.

"Good, because I'd like you to be stark naked when you come."

"Me too" she agreed and for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, she raised her hands and placed them on his chest. He winced slightly at their coldness but relaxed against her after a few moments when she slowly ran them up to his shoulders.

He felt just as good as he always had, Rose thought with a slight pang. The same smoothness, the same bumps, the same pale skin that was almost as pallid as hers. She tried hard not to think of how many others after her had had the same pleasure of having their hands on the naked chest of Scorpius Malfoy.

"You're frowning," he noticed as his hands tugged up the hem of her top.

Observant little twat.

Rose would very much had liked to say that it was because of his incapacity to stick to one girl that had her frowning but thought he'd just get an ego stroke out of it and she didn't want to give him that service. "I do that a lot around you," she murmured instead as she raised her arms in order for him to pull the top off before resting her hands back on his chest and shivering as she felt the definite chill slide down her spine.

"I've noticed," he said sarcastically and traced his fingers over the strap of her bra. "Would you like it gone?"

"Your prerogative," she shrugged and dropped her hands down to his school trousers. "My prerogative wants these off though."

Scorpius gave a very rare, genuine smile before it was gone and he was intent once more. "Later," he whispered before he'd deserted her bra and had brought his hand to the back of her neck in order to pull her closer and press a hot, needy kiss firmly on her lips. Rose moaned into his mouth and responded back feverishly.

It's been so long… so goddamn long since she'd tasted him and had the feel of his lips upon hers kissing her into mindless oblivion. This was something she could fast become used to once more. She parted her lips in invitation for him to enter and explore her mouth and he obliged her, his tongue making the crevices of her mouth burn with want.

When he pulled back breathlessly after many moments he managed to gasp out, "Such a lovely kisser."

"You're welcome," Rose responded hoarsely. "I'd like your lips somewhere entirely more naughty however." And she reached out behind her to unhook her bra before grabbing his hands and making him brush the straps off her shoulder. "If I remember correctly, you used to love kissing my breasts…"

"Tease," Scorpius growled angrily before he bent his head to attack her breasts and Rose' small laugh was lost in a gasp of delight.

"Enough," Rose gasped as she gritted her teeth and allowed another wave of ecstasy to completely dominate her body. "Scorpius… sto… "

"Are you seriously asking me to stop?" he grunted dryly and continued with the steady rhythm of his hips.

"Yes," Rose managed to breathe out once she'd processed his words and managed to think of a reply. Rose wanted it to be known that thinking of replies that weren't dirty whilst having sex was _hard_. "I have to… I have," she muttered incoherently trying to remember what it was she had to do. A hazy picture of Albus briefly graced her thoughts and she remembered. "I have to go."

"Where?"

"Gryffindor common room; my cousin's birthday."

"You're not going," Scorpius managed to order before he stopped her objections with a fierce kiss that bruised her lips, his hand gripping her neck from behind. Rose's nails dung into his shoulders as she moaned into his mouth. The combined, synchronized feel of him moving inside her and his tongue in her mouth was almost enough to have her coming again. Her legs were starting to get a little sore from being wrapped about his waist for… how long had they been at it now? She didn't even want to think of the effort it was costing him to have her remain like that but she reasoned that the wall she was pressed against probably helped.

"Please," she asked when she managed enough willpower to pull back. "Just today?"

"No," he rebuked and returned to kiss her but she'd pulled back from him.

"Just today," she repeated with an added stressed tone in her voice. "Please."

"Fine," Scorpius said sourly after a moment's consideration in which he penetrated her being with his disgruntled eyes. "Let's just finish here first."

With a slight smile on her face that she'd managed to make him acquiesce, Rose brought her lips closer to his before whispering smugly against them. "You're cute when you pout; I think I might piss you off more often."

"You do so and I'll have you begging for a release you're never going to get," he snarled before he wiped that smirk off her lips with a hard kiss, intent on getting the little whore off and sending her on her merry way.

By the time Rose had managed to sneak back into the school and into her room to freshen up and eliminate any indication of her not-so-scholarly activities and get up to Gryffindor tower it was almost nine. She swindled the Fat Lady into letting her in and stepped into the common room she'd rarely visited before to see a large group of redheads by the fire being rowdy.

It was Hugo who spotted her first and he snorted upon seeing her. "About time," he drawled as she approached them and she sent him a half hearted glower. "We thought you weren't going to make it."

"I said I'd come," Rose argued and turned to greet her many cousins in turn. It was only at gatherings that she truly realised how big her family was. "Happy birthday Lil," she grinned at Lily who was beaming widely. "No present though; I'll make it up to you at Christmas, okay?"

"It's okay," Lily smiled, brushing the situation off lightly. "What kept you by the way?"

"My essays took longer than I'd planned," Rose lied praying to deity above to not let a blush taint her cheeks and botch her lie. "It's not that late though."

"You've got good timing," Dominique said, coming over and handing her a bottle of butterbeer. "Albus just went to get some cake from the kitchens under the cloak."

Rose smiled idly. Must be nice to have an invisibility cloak that allows you to sneak out whenever and wherever you wanted with little chance of getting caught. She needed to put an order in for one. Or steal Albus'…

It was hard to mingle with her cousins when her mind kept replaying the sight of Scorpius enveloped in ecstasy and moaning her name as he pressed kisses to her lips. Her mouth began to tingle at the reminder and she licked her lips and shook her head in an effort to not allow her thoughts to stray down that path whilst surrounded by many cousins who shared the Weasley shrewd suspicion gene and would immediately know that her thoughts weren't exactly on cake and birthday tunes.

"You okay?" Dominique asked after a while when Rose had been sat in an armchair, staring unseeingly into the fire and leisurely consuming her butterbeer.

"Huh?" Rose asked woolly. "Oh, um… yeah. Just a little tired."

Which was a somewhat truth. If admittedly a tiny little one.

"You just looked a little faraway."

"Just a little tired," Rose repeated trying to keep the impatient tone out of her voice. But she was distracted all together as Nathalie Banks came down from the dormitories and joined in the merrymaking. What a _perfect _way to finish an otherwise nice day.

"I've got a long day tomorrow; I should probably go," she said suddenly and set her butterbeer down and got up, fully intent on leaving for her room.

"But the cake's not even here yet! Stay just a bit, Rosie," she urged and made to tug Rose back down by the sleeve but she resisted and began to make her way towards the portrait hole.

"I'm sorry, I'm just really tired," she muttered and made a show of covering up a very fake yawn that she hoped looked real to the others. "Bye everyone!"

Lily looked disappointed but waved nonetheless with a small smile and went back to her conversation with Hugo. She'd just reached out to open the portrait hole when it swung open to reveal Albus carrying a bright pink cake and grinning, a conspicuous lump beneath his jumper – must be the cloak.

"You came!" he said jubilantly upon seeing her.

"And I'm going," she said wistfully. "I'm tired."

This word was beginning to bore her.

"Just stay and have cake then," Albus said but Rose shook her head.

"Save me a piece for the morning," she negotiated and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek as he looked dismayed. "Good night."

And then she was gone.

Scorpius ignored Samantha's smile and wave and fell down into a chair before the fire. His friend Nicholas sent the girl an apologetic grimace as she looked wounded and took the chair opposing Scorpius'.

"That wasn't very nice," he chided.

"I'm not nice," Scorpius shrugged, uncaring. As far as he was concerned, she'd been another good orgasm in a toilet cubicle and that was it.

"Was she just another notch?"

"Yep," Scorpius said.

"And you only wanted it once with her?" Nicholas said shrewdly.

"I'm a man of many tastes and her taste wasn't exactly satisfying."

"Are you ever going to eh… settle down?" Nicholas looked very much amused and gleeful that he was asking such a question and Scorpius archly raised an eyebrow.

"Settle down? Just what do you mean by that?"

"Not settle down to get married but perhaps settle down with _one_ girl and not be screwing _three_ in one week."

"You mean dating?"

"Something like that; you know, one girl, dates, flowers and poetry, and sex every now and then."

Scorpius threw his head back and laughed. "Why have sex every now and then when you can have it pretty much every day with a different girl every time, sometimes even two girls?"

"Because you're going to get bored. You're picky enough as it is but when you get older and realise that you want someone to stay with you forever you're not going to find her that easily. Lust is fantastic but it gets old. Too much of anything gets old. Ease down on the one night stands and try to actually take an interest in the girl herself and not what her body can do for you."

"I don't want to though. Sure, what you said might be true but I like what I do too much to stop."

"What's more is that there's a moral repercussion in what you do," Nicholas persisted firmly. "Just how many girls have you had crying since you first started having sex?"

"Forty? Fifty? I don't know. Besides, they're the ones throwing themselves at me and sacrificing all dignity."

"They do that because you urge them to do so with all your sleazy winks and notes. And it's not only their dignity being sacrificed, you dumb fuck. You've pretty much lost all integrity with the professors because of your inability to keep your zipper firmly shut."

Scorpius scowled. There was _some_ truth in Nicholas' words. Okay, a lot of truth. His professors' attitude towards him certainly hadn't gone unnoticed at any rate. They looked down upon him with an odious frown and now that he thought about it, they'd recently taken to pairing him with only boys. He could almost expect a lecture from McGonogal herself soon. Plus the thought of having little integrity with people wasn't pleasing. He was Scorpius Malfoy! His name alone deserved integrity by all rights.

But he wasn't ready to give up his way of interaction with the female species. He'd yet to find someone he wanted to know in more in than just a physical way and hence only became acquainted with girls in the only way he knew how: through sex.

He'd never understood women much. His only interaction with women before Hogwarts had been with his mother, aunt and grandmothers and that was about it, save for a few family friends who had daughters. But he'd been a typical little boy and thought girls were stupid and weird and chose to play in his room instead of joining in with them. Even when he'd come to Hogwarts his circle of friends had been boys only and by the time his hormones kicked in and he'd begun noticing girls he'd developed an attitude towards them that was utterly blasé. Girls were for soothing hormones and little else. He didn't need confidantes and he didn't need someone to express love to. Love for a girl was as of yet a foreign feeling to Scorpius Malfoy.

"I'm an eighteen year old randy boy; I'm perfectly allowed to have sex with different girls. They needn't sneer down their noses at me."

"You can have sex with different girls, just courtesy demands that you don't do it at the same time. Or at the very least try not to get caught having sex with a different girl whilst you're screwing another. Girls don't tend to like that or have you forgotten Rose Weasley?" Nicholas asked haughtily, the ghost a smirk across his lips.

Scorpius shrugged noncommittally. Nicholas didn't need to know that he and Rose were back on erm… fucking terms again.

"She caught you at it with two other girls and proceeded to hex the shit out of you," Nicholas reminded mirthfully and Scorpius growled. He did not like the reminder. That hadn't been one of his finer moments. And yet… here she was sleeping with him again. Admittedly he had blackmailed her into the sex but if she'd wanted out of it he knew she could've found a way. The girl wasn't in Ravenclaw for nothing. This only left him with one explanation: she loved the sex as much as him. His ego glowed in content.

"Stop analysing my sex-love life, whatever it is," Scorpius ordered. "Society can judge me all it wants; I don't give a shit."

"Your daddy will when that internship he's been setting up for you at the ministry falls through because they don't want to take someone on whose thoughts are going to be on how to get the minister's assistant into the sack fastest and not on his work."

Ah…

Well… um…

"You're too philosophical to be fun," he snapped at Nicholas for something to say. Nick smirked and knew he'd managed to finally get somewhere.

"Being philosophical is going to help me get a job. Being a whore isn't."

"You've got five seconds to run before I curse you."

Nicholas smiled complacently and left leaving Scorpius to try and wither the rug into ash underneath his burning gaze, wishing that the rug had the blasted face of a _philosophical _friend.

"Malfoy, can I have a word?" Rose asked, stopping before him as he turned round to face her. His friend discreetly loped away but the magically enhanced breasted flobberworm of the day remained and shot Rose a very condescending smug look. Rose returned it with her own smugness.

_You're just the flavour of the day and nothing else. I'm a constant weekly fix. _

Which was so wrong in every way it could be wrong when she thought about it later, but she shrugged it off.

"I suppose you can," he replied dryly and turned to the flobberworm. "Go ahead, I'll be right there."

The flobberworm looked thoroughly put out and gave Scorpius a distrustful look before she glumly walked away. Scorpius waited until she was out of sight before he pulled Rose into a nearby broom cupboard. Rose ignited her wand and held it up allowing the light to blind them.

"What do you want?" Scorpius asked simply, crossing his arm across his chest.

"Well, tonight is the um… night we agreed to…" she struggled for words before she drew a breath and said quickly. "We have sex tonight, remember?"

"Well it's hard to keep track sometimes, but you're telling me it's your turn tonight?" he smirked, his voice sardonic. Yeah, he'd remembered. How could he forget? It was all he'd been thinking about for the past week.

"Keep those remarks up and I'll skip my turn," she snapped.

"I haven't forgotten our arrangement, Weasley," he sighed. "Is this why you sought me out? To make sure I haven't forgotten that I'm due to make you scream tonight?"

"No!" Rose acrimoniously bit again but there was a very endearing blush to her cheeks. "I just wanted to suggest where we meet up."

Oh? This would be interesting.

"Where?"

"You tell me where you'd wanted it first."

"So you can scoff at my taste in places to have sex? No, you go first."

"No. You first."

Obstinate bitch.

"Your Heads' office; a good prefect friend of mine told you there's a lovely conference table there."

He watched as she briefly bit her lip thoughtfully –he wanted to be the one to bite that lip– and said after a while. "Ian does his homework late in the office."

"I'll confound him," Scorpius offered lazily.

"No," she said indignantly. "You can't keep him from his homework!"

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "You said you had a suggestion as to where I could fuck you senseless again. Enlighten me."

"Have you ever heard of the um… Room of Requirement?"

"My dad briefly told me about it but I've never used it."

"Well, just be there at nine, all right?"

"You know I'll be there," he said. "I have a request of my own."

"What?" Rose asked warily.

"Wear a skirt this time," he breathed as he leaned closer and pressed his lips to her neck. He found her pulse and sucked greedily on it. Rose' breath hitched at the mere contact and the feel of his lips moving against her throat had her pulse hammering treacherously. He could probably feel it and sure enough, she detected the lift of his lips into a smirk against her skin after a few moments.

Scorpius pulled back, smirk still in place before he left without another word.

She was already there when he got in and he took in his surroundings with a bemused glance. The room looked exactly like her office and she sat perched on the edge of a large, mahogany conference table. His eyes were drawn to her crossed legs immediately.

"I thought I told you to wear a skirt," he said irritably and glowered at the offending black jeans she was wearing.

"It's cold," she said simply. "I'd rather not run the risk of hypothermia for your pleasure."

"Then transfigure your trousers," he said and approached the table, pulling a chair away from the table to place it before her and sit down. Rose smiled self-righteously at his position and leisurely swung her legs beneath the table.

"No, I like wearing trousers."

"You did this just to piss me off, didn't you?" Scorpius growled.

"Would I do such a thing?" she laughed, her tone teasing.

Yeah, she would. To see him pout. Scorpius made a conscious effort to avoid pouting.

"I don't think I'm in the mood anymore," he snarked but edged his chair closer and placed his hands on her knees.

"You're always in the mood, it's just a matter of how much," she said quietly, her eyes greedily taking in his hands as they slipped from her knees to lightly tickle her calves and then further down to her bare feet where the mere touch of his fingers on the sole of her foot had her toes curling and her stomach tightening.

"Ticklish?" he grinned darkly.

"Just a little," she admitted and made to draw her feet back but he kept them in place before him. Her feet were nice. They weren't petite but fit perfectly with her height and were ridiculously soft for feet. Her nails clearly lacked a manicure but were well taken care of and somehow naturally coral pink. His fingers left her feet and slipped beneath her jeans to trail along her calf to the inside of her knee but the jeans were a slim design and only allowed him to go above middle calf before the fabric prevented him from moving further up.

Sighing impatiently, he pulled out his wand and muttered a simple incantation and Rose gasped as her trousers disappeared and were replaced with a short pleated skirt, the backs of her thighs meeting the cold surface of the table.

"Next time, save me the trouble and wear a skirt," he advised lowly as he took in the sight of her legs before him, so wondrously soft and pale and his to do with as he pleased. Rose seemed conscious of the fact that her legs were spread out before his gluttonous gaze and made to squeeze them together but he stopped her, his warm hands once more going to her knees. "Don't be shy."

Rose slowly nodded and allowed the blush in her cheeks to abate. She didn't know why she'd felt so self-conscious before… perhaps it was just the nature of the position; her sat on a table in a miniskirt, him before her on a chair and his head on level with her crotch.

Blush diagnosed.

She looked down at the skirt with an assessing glance. It was black and pleated, very schoolgirl-y… no wonder Scorpius seemed to get around a lot. Having a thing for the schoolgirl look and actually being surrounded by lots of schoolgirls in pleated little skirts literally meant no resistance to hormones.

Averting her eyes from the skirt to his hands, she watched breathlessly as his fingers clasped around her calves and his head leaned forward to press feather-light kisses to the side of her knee. She let out a soft sound of pleasure and leaned back on the table, steadying herself on her hands. Scorpius persisted with his kisses, steadily becoming desirous and more savage as they ascended up her legs until his lips were an inch away from the hem of her skirt, sucking on the tender flesh of her inner thigh.

Rose didn't have the gall to not be breathless and randy by the time he was finished. The wet tightening between her legs was accompanied by a dull throbbing and her chest was heaving as she took him in, slowly pulling his head away from her legs to stare greedily up at her.

"Don't," she ordered with a slight whimper. "Don't stop…_please_."

Scorpius loved it when she begged. "Let's just get rid of a few things first," he suggested with a low murmur and with a few well chosen words and a slight wave of his wand, the adorable purple knickers he had spied earlier were gone. Rose winced a little as a cool breeze hit her intimate areas but then she felt Scorpius' warm breath on her thighs and forgot all else.

"Lie back," he instructed before his tongue licked along the inside of one thigh towards the juncture between her legs. Rose was disinclined to obey; she was a voyeur and she wanted nothing more than to watch him please her. "Lie back," he repeated with a definite growl in his voice and again, Rose defied the order. Tables were nice. And Table sex was even better. But there would be a chance for that later; right now she was very much engaged in the setting of boy, girl, table, chair and oral sex.


	3. Part 3

**Part 3**

"You're such a slut," Nick hissed to Scorpius the next day as they made their way through the corridors towards Transfiguration.

Scorpius had heard this comment so often now it did little to affect him. "Why's that?" he asked jadedly just to humour his friend.

"Because that girl you just winked at and probably arranged to meet in a broom cupboard wasn't the girl you were out with last night," Nick said darkly, his gaze briefly going to scowl at the blonde girl in question.

"What if it was?" Scorpius challenged.

"I'll eat my hand if it was. Was it?"

Nicholas eating his hand would've made for great entertainment but unfortunately Scorpius still thought that making your friend eat his hand wasn't exactly courteous, great fun though it might have been. "No," he replied tightly and Nick allowed a taut, brief smirk before he was back to scowling.

"Has your conscience been in employment for the past two years?"

Most likely not.

"Of course it has," he said indignantly just to piss Nick off. He was becoming an insufferable pedagogue with his preaching and saintly words of advice. Nick looked like he very much doubted that. "Would you stop fucking lecturing me? You deal with your own problems and I'll deal with mine."

"Except you don't have the capacity to deal with your own problems. What are you good for apart from scoring a few goals on the Quidditch pitch and degrading the school's female population?" Nick said stingingly in an uncharacteristic display of open vitriol.

Ow.

Fully unable to comprehend his instant reaction due to the fury that had gripped him, Scorpius had grabbed Nick and thrown him against the corridor wall before swinging his fist back and bringing it colliding painfully with his jaw. The audience around them watched with eager apprehension as Scorpius brought his knuckles once more to Nick's face. The few portraits that hung on either side of Nick gave cries of outrage but Scorpius ignored them and proceeded to aim another punch at Nick before he felt a spell hit him and his body was thrown across to the opposing wall of the corridor. His head bumped agonizingly into the hard stone and he let out a very violent stream of swear words.

Struggling to get rid of the stars before his eyes and the throbbing in his head, Scorpius managed to see Nick slumped against the wall and a redheaded figure beside him, checking that he was fine.

Rose.

He watched through his pain with a boiling acrimony in his stomach as Rose' slender fingers slid over Nick's face and her features winced and softened at the blood spilling from his mouth. She raised her wand and managed to stop the flow of blood but Nicholas was still grimacing, giving Scorpius a dubious hope that he'd broken his jaw. He managed to catch a few snatches of conversation but mostly they were from the on looking crowd.

Rose assigned someone to take Nicholas to the hospital wing before she turned to him. "Twenty points from Slytherin and a weeklong detention," she said coldly and turned away.

"Get out of it, Weasley," he yelled at her back, angered. She'd been all but been screaming his name last night and now she'd given him week long detention? What a duplicitous bitch!

To further his anger, she didn't deign to respond and he bellowed some very colourful adjectives at her back, suddenly wishing he'd neither given her those many orgasms last night nor failed to cause her some grievous harm. Or both.

Thoroughly pissed off, he skived off the whole morning periods and found a willing enough sixth year Gryffindor to make do with taking his anger out on.

Nicholas was perfectly restored by lunch and chose to sit much too close to Scorpius to guarantee complete physical safety. He didn't look angered that Scorpius had only just broken his jaw and kept shooting him complacent looks that Scorpius found highly aggravating.

Scorpius was still very much infuriated by Nick and by Rose and hadn't completely vented his frustration out on that poor Gryffindor girl whom he'd left wincing and upset in the empty charms classroom they'd found. His roast potatoes before him were now more on par with mash potatoes than anything and he sulkily stabbed his fork into his sprouts only slightly cheering himself by imaging the sprouts to be Nicholas' head.

His comment had been way below the belt. It was an insult. How dare he insinuate that his only talents lay on the Quidditch pitch and in demeaning women? Scorpius Malfoy was a man of many talents even if he didn't choose to display them all. And then to add insult to injury, Rose had been the icing on the cake. She was fucking fucking him and yet she'd fucking hit him with a fucking spell, almost cracking his fucking skull open in the fucking process only to go check on the fucking bastard?

He didn't like it when Rose chose to devote her attentions to those other than him.

Speaking of the said bitch, he raised his head to glance at her upon hearing her voice and saw red as she'd come over to sit next to Nicholas and check on his no longer existent injury. Nick looked pleasantly surprised but answered her questions with a slight smile and when she reached out to gingerly touch his jaw, Scorpius was very much prepared to hex Nick into next year and back.

Most unfortunately, Nicholas was spared as Elena Harper chose to drop into the seat opposing Scorpius and gave him a very sweet, indulgent smile.

"Hi," she beamed.

"Elena," he greeted with lacking enthusiasm, unwillingly taking his eyes off Nick and Rose to take in the brunette before him.

"You look a little put out," she conversed and Scorpius gave her a weak smile. She was hard not to like, Elena Harper, even if her bedroom skills were a little sloppy. A petite brunette with large hazel eyes and a very approachable aura –most people said she belonged in Gryffindor or Hufflepuff but Scorpius didn't doubt that she had her Slytherin traits and considered this little fact to be one of them. She was very good at deceiving people into believing that she perhaps had qualities she otherwise didn't own.

"I had a brawl with my best friend; I have to be put out," he explained although his vexation now was solely due to how cosy Rose seemed to be getting with Nick.

"Perhaps I can soothe some of your anger," she suggested with an indicative lift of her lips that was less vulgar than it should have been.

Scorpius gave another brittle smile. He just wasn't in the mood and even if Elena did manage to get him a little worked up –which he highly doubted- he knew he was too much inundated with Rose to fully appreciate what she was offering. Plus if he went now he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on the very sudden camaraderie between his best friend and the girl he had the best sex with.

"Perhaps another time," he said and Elena's mien showed only a slight of disappointment before her endearing smile was back. She nodded and left to sit with her friends. Girls should be more like Elena, Scorpius thought bitterly as his gaze went back to Rose and Nick whom had engaged in what looked like a serious conversation about the book Rose had in her hands. Girls shouldn't start flirting with your best friends when you've blackmailed them into shagging you every other week.

What really cheesed Scorpius off was Rose' blatant disregard of the fact that he sat only a few seats away. Her indifference was aggravating to an almost intolerable degree.

He'd make her pay.

"You've given me a very good incentive to publish a few pictures," Scorpius snarled as he tracked down Rose to the library and found her studying in a niche by the window.

Rose raised her hostile gaze to his. "Sit," she said and indicated to the spare chair on the opposite side of her table. He glared at her order but sat down. "Now you listen here," she began threateningly, her voice a gentle hiss as she leaned towards him slightly over the table. "You said you wouldn't publish those pictures as long as I agreed to have sex with you once a week. As far as I'm concerned I've kept my end of the bargain, now you do the same."

"You put me in detention for a fucking week!" he snapped quietly.

"It's what I do. I'm Head Girl; I could hardly watch you beat up someone and allow you to go on your way just because I'm having sex with you."

"The detentions will get in the way of my Quidditch practice and our arrangement seeing as how you've put me down for two hour sessions to start at eight."

He did not like the cold, patronizing look Rose sent him. "No, it'll get in the way of your_ other _arrangements," she said frostily. "I'll supervise your detention when we're due to meet up and_ then_ you'll have an interesting detention."

Scorpius was stunned for a few moments. She was going to give him hot sex whilst in detention? He knew there had been a perfectly good reason for him to blackmail her. The triumphant smirk she sent him was very bitter. "Anything else?" she asked tartly.

He wanted to bring up the Nicholas situation but suddenly thought better of it. It would not do him well to have Rose Weasley think he was jealous –which he so was not, really!– and then just cling onto Nicholas to piss him off. She'd already shown how much she liked to do that and how well she succeeded at it. He did not want to be pissed off, especially not at her doing.

"No," he replied just as tartly and departed.

Six detentions down, one to go. Scorpius was glad Rose had the propensity to finish his detentions with her promised pleasures and when he entered the set detention room on Thursday night, he was unnaturally eager to see her. She was sat at the teacher's desk where the prefects who supervised the detentions usually sat and she was completing an essay by the look of her quickly scratching quill. Her gaze lifted as he entered and she only acknowledged him with a nod.

Oh, how encouraging!

"Just let me finish my conclusion," she muttered and continued to write for a further five minutes as Scorpius took a seat and watched her. Her auburn tendrils were pulled back into a charmingly sloppy ponytail and her features were fixated on the essay before her. He noticed she had a tendency to bite her lip occasionally and furrow her brow when she was particularly engaged in a certain piece of text and that her free hand would rise to slowly massage the soreness in her neck.

Scorpius was very much convinced this was just a clever ploy to get him off with little effort and that she had no interest in her work at all. Even if it weren't so… it was working terribly well. He was already hard.

Finally, she set her quill down and rose from her seat, laconically stretching her limbs a little as she approached his desk.

"You've been avoiding me," he stated as she neared.

"I wasn't aware that our interaction consisted of more than these_ tryst_s," she said, twisting the word with a bitter note.

"And yet you would happily steal my best friend away from me for two hours to discuss _a book_?" he snarked acrimoniously.

Rose smiled indulgently at him. "Funny, but your skirmish with your best friend is the reason you're here. And secondly, I didn't see Nicholas protesting about having to leave your presence."

_Of course he fucking wasn't. Who would mind having to spend two hours gazing at you and your deliberately teasing idiosyncrasies?_

"Nicholas will follow anything in a skirt," he lied and Rose' smile extended, although clearly lacking amusement.

"Sounds more like an adept description of you," she said lightly and raised herself to sit on the edge of his desk and Scorpius was completely taken aback by her attire that he forgot to be pissed off. How could he have missed something quite as winning as _that_?

She was wearing a ruffled little white skirt much shorter than the one he'd transfigured for her last week and on her feet were the sexiest pair of high-heels he'd seen in quite a while. This was just a very elaborate plot to torture him, Scorpius was sure. No way would she willingly decide that this was what she liked to wear in the beginnings of November. Wouldn't want to risk hypothermia after all.

"I didn't tell you to wear a skirt," he managed to say slowly once some blood had gone back to his brain and he'd managed to process a sentence that wasn't mindless, awestruck gibberish.

"No you didn't," she confirmed. "And I'm hardly wearing this for your pleasure but I recently purchased this skirt and haven't had a chance to wear it yet. I thought tonight might be a fitting time for it to step into the public eye."

"I'm glad you did though," he smirked, knowing her to be lying –she had to be!– and Rose' answering smile was very taut.

"I aim to please," she replied dryly but her sarcasm faltered as Scorpius reached out a hand to feel the softness of her thighs. Merlin, she was so tempting.

"I want to eat you up," he told her huskily and to prove a point, he lowered his head and licked above her knee before lightly sinking his teeth into the beguilingly soft, yielding skin, fighting the urge to bite harder. Her skin was salty but the heat beneath his lips was beyond satisfying. As his lips slipped beneath her skirt and began to ascend, revelling in the smell of her arousal, she fisted her hand in his hair and lightly pulled his head up, causing his gaze to lock with hers. Her eyes were already heavy lidded with lust and her lips parted.

"No," she rasped out. "I… meh…my turn._ I_ want to eat _you_ up."

Scorpius' jaw fell slack at her words. She was going to suck him off? And he thought he was hard before. He _really _knew there had been an iron clad reason for him to get her to do this. Rose must've noticed his disbelief for she let out a low, breathy laugh.

"Surprised much?" she asked. "I've never tried it before and I was wondering if you could teach me…" she actually blushed a little but her gaze was determined.

"Are you a quick-learner?" Scorpius inquired lowly and took the hand in his hair to press a long, wet kiss to her palm. She caught the intention behind it and smiled just a little.

"Yes, but don't get mean if I snag my teeth on your prized possession. I am a beginner after all."

"I'll make allowances tonight," he offered with a slight lift of his lips before standing up and letting her hand go in favour of undoing her buttons and smirking full on as he saw that she was wearing no bra underneath. "Did you instinctively know that I'd like to come on your tits?"

"I was actually thinking more around my face but I suppose you got lucky that I chose not to wear a bra tonight," she replied with a similar smirk of her own and pulled him round the desk.

Scorpius gripped the edge of the desk as Rose deliberately pressed herself up against him and slipped a hand down to hold him as she worked at teasing his earlobe. Holy cauldron! He wished she was this presumptuous more often.

"So, what's the first step?" I'm at your command."

"Rose," Ian called out to her as she left Ravenclaw Tower en route for her rounds with none other than Ian himself. She turned to see him hurrying towards her, his mop of dark hair unkempt and his mien troubled.

"Ian," she acknowledged neutrally. "I thought we were supposed to meet in the entrance hall?"

"I know," Ian sighed as he stopped before and ran a hand through his already messy hair making it stand even more on end. "But my sister took a really bad bludger at practice and they took to her the hospital wing. I have to go check on her. Would you mind doing the rounds alone for a bit whilst I go see her. I won't take long, I swear."

Rose didn't mind. Ian was good company on rounds and a very good debating partner on a wide range of topics but sometimes she did just want some silence and time to herself. "No, it's completely all right," she replied, her voice softening. "Stay as long as you want."

Ian gave her a weary smile. "I don't think I'll stay long. Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Rose muttered before she gave a feeble lift of her lips and walked away, thinking to start with this topmost floor and gradually heading down. A glance over her back assured her that Ian had left on course for the hospital wing. It would be a bit lonely without him but she chose to invest the silence investigating her thoughts about Scorpius.

It had been almost a month since they'd started this supposed arrangement. Scorpius didn't seem like he had any intention of tiring of her soon and Rose wasn't completely sure she wanted him to. He was fast becoming increasingly annoying especially when it came to her newfound acquaintance with his best friend but somehow, amazingly, the sex made up for that annoyance. She'd never thought she'd be the kind of girl to stick to a guy when he was an absolute slapper but she reasoned that this was no relationship and she had wanted it solely for satiating her bodily urges. In a strange paradox, she was satiated but every few hours spent with him had her wanting more. She was refined enough that she only just managed to stop herself making a deal with him about more nights of passion. If admittedly, regretfully cold passion.

Rose couldn't for the life of her fathom why in Heavens she wanted a relationship with Scorpius Malfoy again. Their alleged relationship at the end of last year had been nothing but a stupid sham. _She'd_ given it some credit but Scorpius had thought of her as just another fling. That dark hour that she'd found him in a compromising position with not one but two girls still had a tendency to flit through her head when she was careless enough to allow her thoughts to stray down that path.

She wasn't sure Scorpius Malfoy had the capacity to stay in a committed relationship without fucking half a dozen girls behind her back. There was a possibility that he could be nice, he could be faithful, he could be less jumped up… but that was what _she_ wanted not what he wanted. And she could hardly force him to do something he didn't want to do.

Dutifully, she completed her rounds for a while going from the seventh floor to the sixth and after twenty minutes she was on the fifth floor and had encountered no misbehaving twats as of yet. Ian still hadn't come and Rose was thinking that her rounds tonight would be quick and hassle free. That thought was mercilessly stifled as she passed a storeroom that she knew lead off the prefects' bathroom. Indiscernible noises were coming from the room and disillusioned, she pulled out her wand and made for the door of the storeroom. As she edged closer she managed to get the gist of the sounds and was able to make an educated guess that nothing innocent was going on in there.

Never before on her rounds had she actually stumbled across people during intercourse, although some had been very close. It only rarely happened anyway, once or twice a month but Hogwarts' upper years were teeming with randy hormonal teenagers just discovering sex and masturbation. This kind of thing was bound to happen. Most couples chose to lock their preferred love-nests of choice and cast silencing charms and that certainly made things easier for Rose, neither wanting to see or disturb. This couple it seemed, had been in a bit of hurry to do any such thing,

Rose turned the handle and pushed the door open, prepared for Armageddon but not the sight before her.

It was familiar but with a slight change.

Marissa Wright was on her knees and enthusiastically sucking off a groaning Scorpius who had his trousers around his ankles.

Rose could only blink a few times, refusing her brain the displeasure of fully acknowledging the scene but the blood in her body had frozen and turned to icicles beneath her skin piercing every inch of her body with a dull ache. Marissa and Scorpius turned at the distraction and Marissa gave a yelp of surprise and pulled back from Scorpius, flushing a fantastic shade of red and scrambling to right her dishevelled clothes: open shirt –no bra underneath. Big surprise.

Her eyes were on Scorpius however, who gave a curt swearword before Rose managed to gather what was left of her wits and turned round, darting down the corridors, fighting not to cry. He didn't fucking deserve to have someone cry over him and she didn't want to be the stupid ditz who emptied her tear ducts clean over a bastard like him. It was hard not to cry though; the reminder was so glaringly harrowing.

She turned a corner and felt herself collide with a body and she looked up through glassy eyes to see Ian hold out two hands and grip her upper arms gently in order to steady her.

"What is it?" he asked worriedly. "What's wrong?"

Aw, shit! Rose still hadn't completely perfected lying under pressure. This was going to need some thinking and she made a show of slowing her breathing before she said, "Noth…nothing."

Ian quirked an eyebrow distrustfully. "What happened?" he persisted forcefully. Damn the Gryffindors for being so chivalrous!

"I…" Rose stuttered before she managed to say very quickly, "a suit of armour jumped out at me." She hoped the faltering in her voice looked to Ian to be out of embarrassment rather than despair.

Ian's features cleared and a touch of amusement dropped into his icy blue eyes. "You were scared of a bloody mass of brass?" He asked and allowed his hands to drop away from her arms.

Some irritation managed to soothe away some of her despair and she responded hotly whilst consciously noticing that her anger was distracting her from the prickling in her eyes. "Hey, it fucking jumped out at me from nowhere," she fabricated tetchily and Ian sniggered, causing her to raise a fist and punch him half heartedly in the arm. "You try not shooting fifty feet into the air after a suit of armour groans into your ear unawares."

"I doubt it would've reduced me to near tears however," Ian pointed out and Rose scowled, choosing not to push that point because how does one explain being on the verge of tears after a suit scared them and they haven't been exactly known to cry at such things for a while now?

What took Rose by surprise however – as she was glaring defiantly at the poor ground – was his soft fingers rising to brush away the tiny tear that had finally escaped onto one end of her eye. She looked up quickly into his gaze and saw him intent as he pulled his hand back.

"I'm a novice as to how to get back at enchanted suits of armour but I can have a go if you'd like," Ian offered, his voice lower than it had been and Rose managed to let out a weak laugh despite herself.

"Don't trouble yourself on my account, please," she chuckled feebly.

"Trouble?" Ian repeated. "Nothing's too much trouble for you, Rose."

Her blood somehow managed to unfreeze at the sentence and the stinging in her body eased as she looked up and saw Ian much closer than she had anticipated. Rose was able to inspect the smart black glasses he wore like this and beneath them the eyes that reminded her a bit of someone else but unlike the other pair, these comforted her with warmth and promises of no danger and hurt.

"Ian?" she whispered as she nervously licked her lips, taking the one step there was between them to step into his slightly awaiting hold – his arms nervously wrapping around her slim waist.

"Hm?" Ian asked softly, his eyes on her lips but not doing anything to act on what he wanted.

"Kiss me."

Scorpius threw his head back against the wall several times until there was a dull ache just above his neck. Marissa was staring at him peculiarly and he only remembered then that he was exposed waist down to her. He pulled up his trousers after that.

"She didn't say anything," Marissa stated needlessly, almost reverently and greatly astonished as Scorpius fastened his belt.

Inexplicably irritated – and incredibly not at Rose – Scorpius gave Marissa a once over, decided he _really _didn't want to sleep with her and made for the door.

"Where are you going?" Marissa immediately asked, a hint of coldness to her voice.

"I'm not in the mood anymore," he snapped and opened the door that Rose had closed on her way out but Marissa's next words had him freezing, hand on the knob.

"You're fucking her aren't you?"

The suspicion was clear and biting. For someone who liked to play the resident ditz that had been a peculiarly fast (and precise) conclusion.

Scorpius turned to face her, his features detached as he sneeringly replied. "Even if I _was _fucking her, I would've made sure she didn't catch me with the likes of you."

With that said he left the room and began a frantic search for Rose. He didn't know why but he had to find her, to try and explain… he didn't have a goddamn clue as to what he would say but he just had to find her, see her, tell her that Marissa was just….

Scorpius shook his head and continued with his search. What on Earth was becoming of him?

It didn't take long before he found her though a few corridors down but when he did see her, his veins were flooded with rage and not relief and he silently took in the sight before him, unable to decipher the spiky, unpleasant feelings in the very pit of his stomach.

Rose was caught in a soft embrace with the Head Boy, their lips moving slowly and gently against one another.

_Get away from her, she's mine!_ Scorpius thought furiously as Ian's hand seemed to travel too far south for Scorpius' liking but the idiot only brought it to press the small of her back and beckon her closer to him, to which Rose quickly obeyed and continued to move her lips against his softer still.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd kissed Rose like that… in fact, he most likely hadn't. It was always fast and demanding and hot but looking upon her and Ian now, he wished he could be in Ian's shoes right now and experiencing the gentle strokes of her lips against his.

Unable to bear much more, Scorpius turned on his heel and made his way back to the Slytherin dungeons, his anger past the point of vexation and onto a level he had yet to identify. He kept debating whether he should go back and pound that bloody fucker into the ground but decided against it. In the end he just ended up wishing he couldn't feel anything.

Jealousy was a grand thing, wasn't it?


	4. Part 4

**Part 4**

When Scorpius entered the Great Hall next morning for breakfast, his eyes immediately sought Rose out and he was irately bemused to see her at the Ravenclaw table in a conversation with a friend. His eyes travelled to the Gryffindor table to make out the Head Boy but he was unable to find him. Scowling, he dropped into a seat at the Slytherin table, glaring venomously at the bacon before him.

"PMS?" Nick asked in a tone too innocent to be genuine and allowed a smirk as Scorpius aimed a punch at him that he only just avoided by ducking.

"No," Scorpius snarled and reached for some sausages as Nick reappeared, his smirk wider still.

"Why are you being such a bitch then?" he questioned. "Oh wait, no, let me guess… yesterday's girl didn't give you enough orgasms?"

"You're the biggest fuckwit I've had the misfortune to meet," Scorpius said darkly and speared his sausages so violently with his fork they hit the plate and caused a soft resonation.

"I could say the same about you," Nick shrugged. "Are you going to tell me then or am I going to have it force it out of you?"

"I'd like to see you try," Scorpius scoffed once downing his food. "What are you going to do? Hang me from the Astronomy tower and threaten to drop me if I don't divulge? Get real."

"No. Actually, it's a lot simpler than that. Veritaserum."

Scorpius turned to Nick with astonishment, his utensils slack in his hands. "Where the fuck did you get veritaserum from?" he questioned.

"You're so thick, Malfoy," Nick rolled her eyes. "You must be quite endowed down south because I'm sure no girl to have seen the mechanics of your brain would fall for you."

The boy's mouth was a deadly as the poison dripping sting of a scorpion. "Hey!" Scorpius said indignantly, the insult really not adding much good to his already sour mood. "I'll have you know I'm quite smart; that Exceeds Expectations average didn't come to be with no effort."

"Yeah, that's why you can't seem to keep track of the number of girls you're fucking – because of your Exceeds Expectations average," Nick drawled, his tongue heavy with sarcasm. "Which by the way, is quickly declining into an Acceptable average. Dear me, Mr Malfoy sure isn't going to like that… that internship seems quite wishful now."

Scorpius snarled but made an obvious effort to not curse his friend. _Must not curse, must nor curse, must not curse… _"How'd you get veritaserum then?" he demanded.

"My father manages the department in the ministry responsible for the control and classification of all magical potions as you very well know, dimwit. It really wasn't that hard to get myself a small vial."

Ah yes, Theodore Nott. Scorpius' father didn't like the man and probably never would; too omniscient by half to be completely trusted and much too detached from society, Scorpius could recall his father once describing the man. No wonder the Notts didn't seem to frequent their functions a lot. Nick didn't exactly fit his father's description but he was frighteningly in the know on almost everything… it made him wonder whether Nick was close to knowing about him and Rose.

The thought of Rose immediately brought back his idly abating anger and he glanced once more up at her but found that she had departed her seat. Scanning the hall, he immediately found her at the Gryffindor table sat with her cousins mercifully and not with the Head Boy. But he wasn't that far away, merely a few seats down and he and Rose kept exchanging subtle glances. Oh yes, Scorpius was most definitely pissed off.

"Are you going to tell me then?" Nick asked, pulling Scorpius' attentions away from the Gryffindor table.

"No," Scorpius said shortly and pushed his plate away, really not in the mood to have anything he'd digest now go back up his throat after a while.

"Well, just be prepared to spill your secrets at lunch, all right? I'll have three drops waiting in your pumpkin juice."

"Thanks for the notice," Scorpius snapped and grabbed his bag and left the table. He'd have to drink from his own hipflask from now on if what Nick said was true. Scorpius didn't doubt that it was.

He passed the Gryffindor table and made a decision to cause Rose some serious discomfort. She deserved it, he thought savagely. He approached with a forced swagger and a counterfeit smirk. Her black haired excuse of a cousin hardened his eyes as he noticed Scorpius' approach and Scorpius replied with a pompous sneer.

"Weasley," he acknowledged to her back and she slowly turned round, her eyes hard and her expression stiff.

"Yes Malfoy? What can I do for you?" Her tone was polite, professional but he detected the underlying stringency underneath.

"I'd like a word," he said in a poised tone to rival her own. "Alone," he clarified as she seemed intent on making him speak before Potter. Yeah, fat chance.

Grudgingly, she excused herself from Potter –leaving her bag at the table- and followed him to a corner of the hall where they weren't in too much danger of being overheard. People were certainly watching though, not many, but a reasonable number.

"What?" she hissed as soon as they were out of earshot.

"About what you saw yesterday," he began but she cut him off with a laconic snicker.

"What I saw was typical Scorpius Malfoy behaviour," Rose snarled. "Don't worry, I expected nothing more from a dick like you and you did say you'd see others whilst we're at this arrangement so I don't give a fig. I'll still see you in a few days." And she turned to leave but he caught her arm and pulled her back.

"You're not the only one who saw something," he said quietly and watched as she froze; her sleeve remained in his hand.

"What did you see?" she asked stonily and yanked her arm back.

"Enough to assure me that how you spend your rounds with the Head Boy is a question of interest and curiosity for many."

Rose didn't seem too bothered by his words if the haughty sneer she sent him was anything. "Did you like what you saw Malfoy?" she jeered coldly. "Do you finally know how a guy should treat and kiss a girl? Did you think I enjoyed myself with Ian more than I do with you?"

Her words had an impassioned, fierce reaction in him. His pride burned within his chest and roared viciously at her words. "Lets find out shall we?" he growled threateningly and pulled her to him, his hands firmly gripping her waist to prevent her escaping, and pressing his lips gently against hers.

Rose felt Scorpius' peerlessly soft lips against hers, smooth and delicate and slow but the passion behind it was equal to nothing. It was utterly premeditated and remote and nothing like their other kisses. It didn't make her feel wanted and warm like Ian's kiss had and it certainly didn't transport her to a world of temporary content; she was still Rose Weasley being kissed by Scorpius Malfoy in the Great Hall.

It lasted only the span of a few heartbeats before Rose managed to push him away, quite horrified and enraged. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked in a furious, loud voice.

"Giving you the dubious pleasure of comparing my kissing expertise to that of the Head Boy's," Scorpius replied sourly.

"Here's the result for you, Malfoy; you'll never learn to kiss a girl like he does," she said with a rather bitter smile before she turned her back on him and flounced back to the Gryffindor table. Seething, Scorpius watched her go, heading for her cousin but Ian had stood up and caught her before she reached Potter and they spoke only a few words before he'd pulled her down next to him, an arm lightly around her waist. He fought back bile as he saw Rose lean into his hold, her head on his shoulder.

Cold realization trickled into Scorpius' torso more like an icy dagger than anything. That kiss he'd witnessed last night had probably sealed their agreement to date. She was somebody else's now… she belonged to Ian fucking Miller.

He briefly wondered what the stabbing in his chest was until he realized with a cold laugh that it was jealousy. He'd fallen for Rose Weasley at last when she'd fallen for someone else. Letting the last of that horrible, empty sound slip past his lips, he walked out of the Great Hall, unsure where he would go to escape what he'd just grasped.

"Don't skip classes," Nicholas was immediately behind him as Scorpius left the entrance hall and headed out into the bitter cold. The sky outside was overcast and promised a good shower but Scorpius could care less.

"Fuck off, Nott," Scorpius barked as he marched away from the castle towards the Quidditch stands.

"It'll raise suspicion," Nicholas reasoned with a sigh and caught up with him. "If you don't want that, come to classes."

"I don't care!" Scorpius yelled as his steps became sharper, faster. "I don't give a fucking damn!"

"You do," Nicholas' infuriatingly sage reply came. "I saw how you looked when she went to Miller. Either you really care about her or you're just good at pulling the heartstrings with the heartbroken bad boy look."

"I don't care about her," Scorpius repeated through clenched teeth and turned to face Nicholas. They'd reached the entrance to the stands and were stood face to face, the wind blowing mercilessly around them. "I blackmailed her into having sex with me; I told her I'd make her lose Head Girl if she didn't agree. That's how much I care about her!"

"It is," Nicholas agreed to Scorpius' absolute frustration. "You only blackmailed her because you still wanted her. She's the only girl who you cared that had caught you with others, she's the only girl you truly felt sorry for what you did to her."

"No. I didn't want her," Scorpius argued forcibly. "I wanted the sex. If I'd truly wanted her, I would've given up my whore ways and openly dated her again."

"You wanted her for the sex but now you want her for more than that. If you did just want her for the sex you wouldn't care that she's seeing Miller, you wouldn't have looked ready for murder back then and you certainly wouldn't be here right now."

Scorpius breathed heavily as he took in Nick's word but he realized something with a pang that he detested. "She'd never want me," he said solemnly. "I hurt her too badly last year and just last night she caught me with Marissa. I went and looked for her to try and apologize, _I think_, but I saw her with Miller."

Nick groaned. "You complete thickhead," he positively snarled. "How many times have I told you to stick to one girl? To try not to get caught at least? I think you've got a fucking problem."

Scorpius had been suspecting that for a while now. How embarrassing. He was a teenage sex addict. Oh, his father was going to be thrilled when he put that down on his CV.

"I… I can try to overcome that," he said slowly. "I'll be content with just Rose."

"What? Now you've seriously lost your marbles. You're still going to blackmail her for sex whilst she's got a boyfriend?"

"It's the only way I can-" Scorpius cut himself off, discomfited at the words that had been ready to spill out of his mouth. "It's the only way I can make her see that I want her. She's never going to give me a proper chance after this."

Nick grimaced, looking like he reluctantly conceded. "If it's the only way…" he sighed. "Are you coming to class?"

"Yeah," he muttered and turned back up the path he'd just taken.

Rose was officially seeing Ian. It was the perfect fairytale, the pretty Head Girl and the chivalrous Head Boy saving the world one detention at a time by day and fucking like rabbits by night. Scorpius had received no confirmation on the last part as of yet and took comfort in the fact that he doubted Rose would let a guy she'd been seeing for a few days get into her knickers that fast. Or at least, that was what he tried to tell himself and with this thought, he realized that he knew absolutely nothing about Rose apart from that she was a damn good lay.

Since his talk with Nick he was exhorting all his efforts into not giving into his body's demands and was finding it so disgustingly tantalizing that despite the harsh November weather, most of Hogwarts' female populace favoured skirts to trousers. And some with no tights underneath; he dubbed these the loose girls of Hogwarts. The more prim ones obviously wore tights.

Four days he'd gone without a good shag and wanking was fast becoming tiresome when he thought of the delicious female body he could have against him instead. He'd almost given in at times when approached by some lovely girls but he'd made facile excuses and gone into the nearest loos to bang his head against the cubicle and ignore that half his broomstick was between his legs.

So it was with relief when his appointed night with Rose came at last. He'd cornered her after Runes earlier in the day in which she'd glared as he told her he still planned to have sex with her and pulled a face, gave him a colourful adjective and said she'd be at the Room of Requirement by nine. He was thoroughly cheesed off by her but found himself struggling to keep that anger when he thought of that adorable face she'd pulled. That made him even more pissed off. At himself. She was making him such a sap!

Nicholas only smiled as Scorpius departed from the common room later that night and made for the Room of Requirement, so keen to just get there and drive himself into her. The room had transformed into a many windowed room with a single four poster bed in the middle, its white drapes glowing in the moonlight streaming from the windows. She wasn't there yet and he waited restively for a good few minutes before he heard the door close and saw her enter, her eyes taking in the room around her.

He was about to greet her but the overly eager hi in his head didn't get past his lips. She didn't greet him either.

"No sex alfresco this time?" she asked lightly, clearly indicating to the last time the room had changed into a forest clearing for their pleasure and he'd taken her against a tree.

"Beds are traditional," he shrugged as she approached, her hands rising to pull off her jacket and leave her in a warm white shirt. He hated it when she wore white. The contrast between the white and the red of her hair made him weak at the knees. Her fingers went to her shirt this time but he stopped her with a hoarse voice.

"Don't," he croaked. "_I_ want to take it off."

He wanted it all. He wanted all of her.

Rose looked bemused at the order but obeyed as she took the final steps towards him until she was a few feet before him. "You won't stop this arrangement will you?" she asked quietly.

Not on her life. He'd lose her if he didn't keep this arrangement. He'd lose her to Ian Miller. He'd lose her to a Gryffindor. Scorpius sorely didn't want to lose her, especially not to a Gryffindor.

"No," he said resolutely.

"You have no conscience?" she probed. He almost ghosted a smile. Nick had said a similar thing prior to this and he wondered whether their camaraderie was rubbing off on her.

"It's there, just out of use," he replied dryly.

"Clearly," she mumbled under her breath before her voice was clear once more. "We have to start randomly choosing the nights; me disappearing every Thursday night for two hours will raise suspicion."

It hadn't before but now she had _Ian_ to worry about. He nodded.

They stood there for a few moments just staring at each other until Rose looked away blushing slightly and muttered, "Shall we get to it?"

_Yes please. _

Scorpius approached her and lightly took her waist in his hands, drawing her closer to him, taking great pains to be soft, gentle when he wanted nothing more than to just rip her clothes off and ravish her against the wall. She looked uncertainly up at him as this surprise tenderness but didn't question it and allowed him to lean down to claim her lips but he stopped when just a breath separated their mouths.

"Promise me one thing?" he whispered heavily as he looked into her blinking azure eyes.

She didn't reply immediately and worried her lip before she said in a resigned, wary voice, "What is it?"

"Don't pretend I'm him," he said and covered her lips with his and despite his most zealous efforts he couldn't stop himself from immediately becoming needy and fierce. She responded immediately, her hands wrapped around his neck and she pressed herself closer to him, adding more fervour to her kisses and causing him to growl in appreciation. Scorpius' hands left her waist, travelled up her back to hold her neck and feel the soft tendrils of her hair.

He pulled back breathlessly and stared at her closed eyes and parted lips. She was almost too beautiful for words, especially when she wore passion so well on her face. "Slow down, okay?" he requested hoarsely and she opened her eyes to survey him peculiarly.

"We're always fast though," she said and bit her lip thoughtfully.

"I'm willing for some slow," he compromised, unsure of how truthful that sentence was. He didn't feel like going slow tonight; he wanted the rush and the heat of the fast passion they always shared.

"No," Rose shook her head. "I like fast. I want tonight to be fast."

Thanking his lucky stars above, Scorpius pulled her back. "Tonight we do things your way; next week I choose the pace," he told her and had roughly taken her lips once more. She eagerly responded and her hands were on his shirt, deftly and quickly undoing the buttons (practice now had her finishing this task within less than a few seconds) and pushing his shirt off his arms.

Her hands roamed his chest as he moved his lips from her mouth to her jaw and allowed his hands to undo her shirt buttons and shuck the shirt off her body. He hoped she was wearing that lovely emerald set she'd worn a few weeks ago but to his disappointment, it was a very Ravenclaw blue. Almost as good as the Slytherin emerald but not quite; at least it wasn't Gryffindor red.

As Rose took the liberty to kiss her way across his chest, he managed to get his wand out and with some difficulty had managed to vanish her jeans. She let out an involuntary giggle near his shoulder when they disappeared and he felt a shudder run through him at the sound.

"My turn," she said after a short while and her hands fumbled with his belt and zipper before she pushed the trousers down past his lips. Scorpius stepped out of them and kicked them away, pulling Rose back onto the bed before he toppled down with her on top. She was giving him the most befuddled expression but did not commentate as he shifted them into a more comfortable position and she helped by straddling him in a way so deviously naughty he hissed and allowed his hands to clutch the bedspread.

"Stay on top," he huskily demanded once he trusted his voice once more. "Just go fast."

He didn't trust himself to take her like this; he knew he would be rough with her and whilst this might not have bothered him earlier, he did not like the thought of being the one to hurt her.

"All the way?" she breathed, surprised and just a little complacent.

Until he managed to get some control over himself at least.

"Just get on with it," he growled and reached a hand to pull her face closer to his as she slowly pulled his boxers down.

Rose sat in stunned silence, taking in her peaceful companion with bewilderment. There was something strange with Scorpius tonight but she couldn't quite peg it down. He was just different; less prissy and demanding for one. He'd even held her after they were done, almost like afterglow and whilst Rose had wanted it for a time, now she just felt the guilt nip at her as her thought strayed to Ian. True to her promise, she hadn't imagined him to be Ian… she wasn't sure she wanted to imagine him being Ian.

He'd enjoyed it more than he usually did, she could tell. And despite coming here with every intention to be pissed off and not help him get off she'd enjoyed it too. Tonight he very much looked like he truly wanted her…no, needed her and she loved the power he'd given her when he'd permitted her to ride him, giving her free reign to observe each and every little reaction to her moves. Giving pleasure it seems was just as heady as receiving it.

"You don't seem upset that I'm still making you sleep with me now that you've got a boyfriend," Scorpius mused quietly and Rose turned to take in his expectant features. They were laying side by side in the bed, underneath the divinely soft comforter, his warm arm about her waist and her head close to his chest.

Rose shrugged. "All's fair in sex and blackmail," she said before she sighed. "I didn't expect you to stop; why would you anyway? What's not to gain from blackmail after all?"

Taken aback at her reply, Scorpius took in her contemplative face with mystification. "You don't care that you're cheating on your boyfriend?"

That wasn't the right thing to say. Her eyes clouded and she stiffened next to him. "I am not cheating on him," she said fiercely. "This arrangement was made before I chose to date him and I put my dignity before a simple relationship that has yet to evolve into something more."

Something in Scorpius relaxed at her words. "You're not going to make an effort to try and stop what I'm doing? There's always a way out of blackmail."

"And I've yet to discover what it is," she said coldly. "But trust me, when I do, you'll be finished."

"Is that a threat?" he smirked.

"Yes."

Scorpius scoffed lightly. "What time is it?"

Rose glanced at her wristwatch. "It's almost midnight."

"You ought to go then; wouldn't want to worry Miller," Scorpius said, not completely successful in concealing his scorn.

"Kicking me out of bed, are you?" Rose smirked wryly as she left his hold and the bed all together to search for her clothes. "Got another appointment with Marissa?"

Her tone was light, more credible than Scorpius' had been and he narrowed his eyes. So she still believed him to be sleeping with that… that… God, what had he been thinking when he'd chosen Marissa? Knifflers had bigger IQs that her. Her derision almost had him shouting at her that he was trying his goddamn hardest to not fuck anyone but her but he stopped himself. He knew what her answer would be; she'd tell him she was with Ian and nothing he could do would change her mind. No, silence was the best option. For now.

"No," he replied coolly. "I've got an essay for Milton I haven't written and its due tomorrow."

Rose didn't reply but he saw the traces of a sheepish look upon her features. Finally, she slipped into her jacket and he watched her go without a word, wishing they'd departed on better conditions.

A/N: Reviews are nice : )


	5. Part 5

**Part 5**

The sight of Rose and Miller looking so_ together _whenever he spotted them over the next few days did little to appease Scorpius. Normally, they were just talking or holding hands but it was enough to have Scorpius' stray on an imaginary killing spree. Rose never did those things with him and while yes, he hadn't actually given her much breadth to do so, he sincerely wished he could join in a snowball fight with her as he'd seen her and Miller do a few days ago or go to some café in Hogsmeade and share a warm pie like she had done with Miller on the previous Hogsmeade trip.

It was all so frustrating. He'd never once wanted such things and he'd never once wanted a witch so compulsively in such a way and to see someone else have it before his eyes was… _disillusioning_. He hadn't given up however. He still planned to make Rose see that he was capable of being a proper boyfriend. Their trysts continued but he was fast becoming disenchanted with them. Not the sex part because despite that it was costing him his every effort, he'd kept his word and had not slept with another girl since he'd promised Nick. It was just Rose. Every week she came but her enthusiasm was dropping with every meeting and when he'd attempt to hold her afterwards and share a few words she'd jump away from him faster than you could say _spring up her arse_ and scramble into her clothes, leaving without a word. Scorpius liked his girls enthusiastic and perhaps he could live with some apathy every now and then, but what Rose was doing was just plain exasperating. How was he supposed to show her he actually wanted her if she pushed him away every time he tried to do so?

With Christmas fast approaching, the usual twelve Christmas trees had been brought into the Great Hall and magnificently decorated and the halls had been decked with holly and mistletoe. Normally, Scorpius would've found the mistletoe-burdened halls an excellent excuse for kissing many girls so publicly, now he just found himself trying to navigate his way around the school by using the mistletoe-free halls to avoid being pounced upon by a different girl under mistletoe every ten feet. Elena had almost caught him once and he'd only just stopped short before he'd stepped into the barrier that would force him to kiss her.

Scorpius had tried once to try and get Rose underneath a mistletoe sprig hanging outside their Arithmancy class but she arched an eyebrow haughtily at him, sneered and left, and only moments later outside the Great Hall he found her in an impassioned kiss with the Head Boy beneath mistletoe. He'd sworn then that he'd make it his life's mission to rid the world of mistletoe. Stupid, bloody, cheap, sentimental plant with absolutely no use!

She'd done it on purpose. He was certain. She was that big a bitch; denying him a kiss and only to go flaunting the fact that someone else could get it and not him minutes later.

Nick had looked at him in commiseration when he'd seen the hard set of Scorpius jaw which only fuelled his spleen. He didn't fucking want pity.

His sour mood had persisted until his meeting with Rose and he'd grudgingly left the Slytherin dungeons on Saturday night to make his way up to the Room of Requirement. He wasn't looking forward to this. He did not want to please her knowing that she was most likely wishing he was brunette, Gryffindor and Head Boy.

Surreptitiously, he crept up the floors one by one but stopped short on the fourth floor when he'd passed the Heads' office to find voices softly resonating. Insanely curious, he pulled out his wand and cast a silencing charm on the door so it would not creak when he opened it and slowly pushed it open.

They did not notice him but he wished they had. At least that would've stopped them from their preoccupation. Rose was sprawled on the conference table, her shirt open and feverishly kissing Ian who was atop her. It didn't look vulgar but it made Scorpius sick to his stomach. How could she do such things with someone else moments before she went off to meet him for exactly the same reason? They hadn't progressed but Scorpius knew that the soft moans Rose made would soon extinguish Miller's inhibitions and control. He stepped back out and closed the door, his body heavy with bile and jealousy. He wouldn't let them continue. Once he'd walked away a good distance from the door, he aimed his wand and muttered an incantation and then…

BOOM!

The door to their office was blasted apart and he hid in a darkened niche to watch as Rose and Miller came out, both heavily dishevelled – Rose shirt was unevenly buttoned – and stared bemusedly up and down the corridor. He left them to inspect the corridor as he continued on his way up, seething with a boiling hate in his chest, the violent drumming of his jealous heart beyond excruciating.

He hated how his efforts to remain faithful to her were wasted in vain. He hated how she didn't even know about his efforts. He hated that he had to watch her fall for someone else as he continued to fruitlessly ignore what came naturally to him – having sex with anything that had legs and a pretty enough face – for her sake. It was all for nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing!

She was going to come to their meeting, no doubt about it, but he was going to fucking rip her heart out and squash it beneath the sole of his foot. He'd show her no mercy. He'd sleep with a person that was sure to not just irritate her but make her every vessel bleed with the humiliation of it. And then, just for good measure, he might publish those pictures. How dare she make a fool of him like that!

His immediate thoughts went to her cousins and the blonde half-French was his first choice but he knew Nick was sweet on the girl and would never forgive him if he slept with her. His second choice was the Potter girl but he ruled her out almost instantly. She was a Potter; Potters and Malfoy simply did not associate, period. Which left the others who were simply too young for his tastes. In frustration, he racked his brains for every girl in the upper years he could think of but none seemed to be tied to Rose in any way possible.

And then she came to him, literally, of her own accord. He was approaching the library when Ian's younger sister came out, the perfect, heaven-sent tool. She walked many yards in front of him but Scorpius would not let her slip away.

"Isobel," he called out and ran after her.

Rose walked away sheepishly from the Heads' Office. She'd never meant to actually progress that far with Ian tonight and had been immensely grateful for the distraction, whoever had caused it. She pinned down Peeves as the main suspect. They'd been snogging on the table and she'd been so strongly reminded of that time with Scorpius that she'd felt an overwhelming desire to compare the two. Now she just felt stupid and guilty for trying to pinpoint the contrast between her boyfriend and her ex. The contrast was so blatantly clear it was a wonder she wasn't blinded by it, for heaven's sake.

Ian was everything a girl could wish for in a guy: smart, cute and above all caring, whereas Scorpius… Scorpius was an _arse_ in every meaning of the word: selfish, arrogant, cruel and a tyrant. Despite her slowly fading feelings for Scorpius, she was falling for Ian though, if falling at a snail's pace. She would be lying if she said she did not look forward to their meetings but it was a tame excitement and the guilt within her would breed with each clandestine meeting, thinking of Ian as Scorpius whispered sweet nothings in her ear. Scorpius seemed to pick up on this and she noticed the bitterness of his mood every time she would rebuff his attempt to hold her in the afterglow.

Suddenly finding herself at her destination, she walked by the opposing tapestry until the door had materialized in the wall. Unnaturally restive, she pushed the door open and stepped in. And immediately wished she hadn't.

Wasn't this supposed to stop hurting with each time that passed? Why did the pain get worse?

Scorpius spotted her without delay and his austere eyes were defiant as he stared at her from behind Isobel who only noticed her when she took note of Scorpius' preoccupation and turned to see Rose stood frozen at the mouth of the room. With a yelp of surprise, she rolled off Scorpius, her hand leaving his cock, and hid underneath the bedspread but Rose eyes were focused solely on Scorpius.

The burning behind her eyes was held back with utmost difficulty as she took in his naked form and ignored the emptiness in her chest. Only just managing a quiet, "Sorry," before her voice completely gave way, she turned and left the room, wishing to find a hole in the ground to just curl into and hide.

She didn't appear for breakfast the next morning and neither was she in their double potions lesson. Scorpius just wanted to bang his head repeatedly against the table until he couldn't think straight anymore. He wanted to forget about her and everything he'd ever had to do with her and especially what he'd seen last night. He couldn't understand how they kept hurting each other whether intentionally or unintentionally… he just wanted it to stop. To just stop all together.

"Are you okay?" Nick whispered as he stirred his potion to Scorpius' right.

Scorpius looked up from the tar-like substance at the foot of his cauldron and sighed heavily. "I'm just tired."

"I'm not your best friend for nothing; I know when you're lying."

"I'll just have to draft up a new list of possible best friend candidates then," Scorpius drawled with no passion and no bite.

"What happened yesterday?" Nick persevered firmly.

"Nothing, damnit!" he said loudly and winced as the professor shot him a warning look and the students around him sniggered at his outburst.

"I'll just go ask Rose then, shall I?" Nick taunted and Scorpius turned to him with a feral snarl.

"You wouldn't dare!" he growled, not at all pleased with the idea of Rose telling Nick how she'd seen him with Isobel.

"Tell me yourself then."

"Fine," Scorpius managed to grit out. "Later."

But the opportunity was mercilessly rejected as once they'd shuffled out of the dungeon and Nick had opened his mouth to deluge Scorpius with demands for information, Scorpius found the Head Boy before him, all dark hair, disgusted features and glimmering badge.

Not bothering to hide his contempt, Scorpius sneered and made to barge past him but Miller had caught his arm and pulled him back. Yanking his arm back with revulsion, Scorpius managed to clip out a cold, rude, "what?"

"This is for Isobel, you sot," Miller had said surprisingly calmingly for someone who did what he did next. He swung his fist back and drove it with such sheer force into Scorpius' stomach that he let out a loud curse and recoiled in on himself, willing the pain away. Son of a three-headed–!

"Oi," Nick yelled indignantly beside him and had pulled his wand out but Scorpius had already fought the pain away and had straightened up, his fist swinging forward to make contact with Miller's cheek who only narrowly avoided the blow but dodging sideways and aiming another hit at Scorpius abdomen where it collided painfully and Scorpius was once more winded.

"That's for Rose," Miller had gasped out through his heavy breathing before walking away.

"Do you need the hospital wing?" Nick asked as he slowly stashed his wand away in his pocket.

"No! Leave me alone, Nick," he positively snarled, fully intent on chasing the bloody bastard down and cursing him so severely that his great grandkids felt the effects of his displeasure. Who the hell did he think he fucking was? Having a stupid badge pinned to one's robes really didn't give anyone the right to walk around like the school was theirs and punch people without some form of retribution. Especially when people were otherwise known as Scorpius Malfoy and had been walking around the school as if it was theirs from the moment they'd set foot in it.

"Would you fucking stop being so enigmatic?" Nick demanded hotly as he kept in Scorpius' tow walking aimlessly throughout the corridors with no real destination. "What happened yesterday? Don't tell me and you'll force my hand with the veritaserum."

It was easy to get what you wanted when threatening veritaserum utilisation. Expelling a frustrated sigh and bestowing Nick with his most lethal glare, he ran a restive hand through his hair as he said, "I caught Rose and Miller about to do it before her meeting with me. Then just to spite her, I made sure she saw me sleeping with his sister who I kicked unceremoniously out of bed in the early hours of this morning with a few harsh words."

Nick's answering silence was a somewhat gratifying and unnerving response until… "I think you should wear a plaque around your neck from now on reading _World's Biggest Wanker_. Why did you have to spite her? Why? There is such a thing as negotiations and compromises and understanding, which you so clearly have been lacking these past few months. He's her boyfriend! Of course she's going to be at it with him! You know this; you know she's not yours and you know she's going to bloody well do what she likes and I'm guessing sleeping with her boyfriend probably ranks high in her list of things she likes to do."

Scorpius hadn't expected him to understand. Nick was becoming really way past intolerable these days, becoming much too sanctimonious for his tastes. He didn't expect him to know the slam of pure devastation upon seeing the girl you wanted about to have sex with someone you loathed with every fibre of your being in a scenario twin to that of when you'd had similar sex with her. He didn't expect him to truly empathise with the soul-corrupting jealousy that had rested well and firmly above his heart and nestled a contemptuous, sneering voice in his head that had him contemplating homicidal urges. He certainly didn't expect him to know of the _pain_… God, the pain was the worst of it. That absolute, unadulterated, _constant_ pain induced whenever he thought about her, which to his absolute misfortune happened to be every single minute.

"How do you redeem yourself now?" Nick asked coolly. "You've really gone way below the belt. Three times is too much for anyone, girlfriend or not."

Redemption was a good idea but one he was loathe to. He didn't want redemption; he just wanted to be over her. To forget about her and her sad little existence that never ceased to complicate his own. To forget the peerless softness and vicious red of her hair, the unparalleled expertise and appeal of her lips and just… her. He missed her; whoever she had been those first few times they'd done it. He missed the girl who'd begged with him to allow her to go to a cousin' birthday party as pleasure filled her body and then smirked at his submission to her request only to kiss him softly afterwards almost as a thank you.

But he couldn't forget her. Not now that he wanted her so compulsively. Redemption was his only choice this time.

"I don't know," he said tightly, absolutely refusing to allow his inner despair and confusion to seep into his voice and fearing he hadn't exactly succeeded in that endeavour. "I just… don't know."

"Well, an apology first would be a good move," Nick mused wryly.

_Oh, really? You don't think!_

"I think the best course of action would be to just tell her how you feel. Tell her that you love her–"

"I don't –" Scorpius began indignantly but Nick silenced him with a firm interruption.

"If that's what you really tell yourself, you're a bigger idiot than I intentionally put you down for. Of course you love her! Any tosser can see it if they looked hard enough. Just say what you feel about her. What's the worst that could happen?"

Now wasn't that an inappropriate question if Scorpius ever heard one. Why did people always ask that question when there were so many wretched things that could happen? And Nick classified _him_ as the idiot.

"She could laugh at me, scorn me and my feelings and tell me she'd still see Miller," Scorpius suggested darkly.

"She won't do that," Nick assured him with surprising certainty. "That's not who she is."

"I don't know who she is anymore! I didn't even know her properly to begin with!"

"Forget all those things! Just give her the pictures, cut off the deal and tell her what you really feel. The best you can hope for is that eventually, she realise how much you like her and perhaps leave Miller for you. Even if she doesn't do that, at least you won't end up fucking up your chances with her in the future."

"And you tell me I'm melodramatic enough to be a girl. Look at all the sentimental shit you just spouted."

Nicholas didn't deign to answer to Scorpius' remark and merely shot him an exasperated glower. "Go find her during break and so help me if you don't fix things, your hide is really going to regret it."

Scorpius snorted gleefully on a laugh but otherwise nodded and continued on his way to next period Charms, wishing Rose would be there and beginning on the foundations of an elaborate plot to seriously harm the Head Boy.

Much to his relief, Rose was already stood in line outside their charms classroom and was mumbling to Potter, looking no different than she had yesterday save for the weary, tired expression she wore. And… was it just Scorpius or did her eyes look slightly red?

Maybe he was just being uncharacteristically optimistic. She was refusing to even glance in his direction as he dejectedly took her in. How he wished now he'd just been able to kiss her, to hold her, to please her last night instead of that senseless exploit.

He sat directly behind her in class and Potter merely quirked an eyebrow in suspicion as he took his seat next to Rose who was abnormally stiff. To his absolute misfortune and aggravation, Miller also happened to take this class and chose to seat himself behind Scorpius who could feel the intensity of his glare on his back. Yeah, like glaring was going to fucking do anything. Fighting the urge to turn around and shoot Miller with a very nasty blockage spell up his nostrils, he differentiated between focusing on Rose's back and the professor.

It was a long class and to Scorpius it just _dragged_. How could he concentrate when his thoughts were plagued with notions of how much he just wanted to run his hands through the curls of auburn before him? How could he concentrate when he was trying in vain to mentally pen the words that would give him a marginal chance of making her see just how less of a bastard he'd been lately (well, not lately lately) and how much he just wanted her in more than just physical acknowledgement? How could he concentrate when he could almost hear Miller breathing down his neck like a mothering fire-breathing dragon bitch?

The urge to hex him was almost inexorable by the end of that unnaturally long sixty minutes and to further fuel his chagrin, Miller immediately flew to Rose' side once the bell had tolled. His fists were clenched before he knew it and Scorpius obliged himself to unfurl them and turn away and leave the class as fast as possible. He'd barely reached the end of the Charms' corridor however before a certain voice was calling his name.

Rose' voice.

"Malfoy!"

Completely and utterly taken aback, he turned round to find her running up to him, a slight perspiration to her forehead.

"Rose," he acknowledged in bewilderment.

"Can we talk for a bit?" she panted quietly and when he continued to just stare at her with eyes as wide as Quidditch hoops, she gave a slightly brittle smile. "In private?"

"Eh…sure," he managed to say at a length and pulled her into a side corridor that was mercifully empty. "So, what do you want to _talk_…about?"

He was absolutely at a loss to the incentives behind her behaviour. Shouldn't she be ignoring him, glaring at him and fundamentally pretending that the world would be a better place if it was rid of his existence?

"I realized you were _busy_ yesterday and wondered if perhaps you'd want to reschedule for tonight?"

If the Hogwarts' Express had wished to drive through his mouth at that moment it certainly would've done so with manifest ease. Had he heard right or was the world finally turning in on its self?

"_What?_" he managed to sputter through his bafflement, as per habit completely lavishing ignorance on his basic custom of always maintaining admirable sangfroid around Rose.

Rose gave him her best smirk. It turned him on more than he liked to admit. "You're still blackmailing me, remember? The last I checked in blackmail etiquette, if the blackmailed doesn't uphold their end the blackmailer gets nasty. You getting nasty isn't something I'm actually praying to happen, Perhaps we had a change of schedule and you just forget to inform me, hm?" Her tone was acidic by the time she finished and her eyes were two spitting blue fires.

But Scorpius relaxed a little at the sight of her so riled up. She wouldn't be so angry if she cared right?

"Tonight, sure. What time?" he asked, paying no heed to her question.

She was already turning to walk away. "Nine and bear in mind that I don't condone tardiness."

How cheeky! The last he checked in blackmail etiquette, the blackmailed didn't speak in such a manner to the blackmailer… but damn it to hell, it was such a turn-on! Scorpius felt a grin tug at his lips as he watched her saunter away, her nose held much too high in the air and a definite angry swagger to her hips.

"I sense a disgustingly good mood," Nick announced with a smirk upon seeing Scorpius at lunch with a much more carefree attitude to him than had been present in the morning. Scorpius merely augmented the wattage of his smile as he pulled a plateful of shepherd's pie towards him.

"Too great for words, is it?" Nick quipped sardonically watching Scorpius slowly devour the pie, a slight arch to his eyebrow. "Anything to do with a certain redhead by the name of Rose?"

"Now that you mention it…" Scorpius said mockingly at a length before he replied just as sardonically, "No."

Nick gave a most uncouth snort. "You can't lie outright to my face," he shook his head. "Small, subtle lies I'll give you but those pure-white ones, don't even bother. Besides, I know you like the back of my hand. Nothing but a conversation – a good one- with Rose could've stretched your lips quite _that_ much"

He did know him, Scorpius conceded; must be something to do with having spent the past seven years being lectured and psychoanalysed by him.

"Fine; she arranged to meet up tonight of her own accord," he admitted with seriously lacking enthusiasm.

Nick's look of unflattering disbelief wasn't what many would classify as a welcome one. "Really?"

Scorpius couldn't refrain from rolling his eyes. "I don't know, Mister I-can-tell-when-you're-lying. _Am_ I lying?"

"No," Nick said grudgingly, slowly. "But seriously? _She_ came to you _to reschedule_?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

That was a very good question.

"I don't know," he said slowly, thoughtfully. "I'm hoping it's not some part of an elaborate vendetta against me… she said that since I'm blackmailing her she wouldn't give me an incentive to get nasty and ruin her reputation."

"Well here's your perfect opportunity!" Nick said brightly. "Make amends with her tonight and tell her how you feel."

"I was actually thinking about that," Scorpius mused.

"And don't sleep with her; it'll make her trust you more."

It was Scorpius' turn to scoff at his friend. "What are you? A fucking Gryffindor at heart? Of course I'm going to sleep with her; this might be the last chance I get to do so again."

"Still not completely rid of your whore ways then," Nick sighed and finally turned back to his now cold casserole.

"Stay tonight," Scorpius muttered against Rose' lips, a hand rising to gently brush away the damp locks from her sweaty forehead as he felt the after effects of his latest orgasm fade. Rose looked as winded as he felt despite being deliberately slow with her and her blue eyes widened, as anticipated. "Please."

"I…I can't," she began to stutter but he cut her off with a long, needy kiss, his lips bruising hers with desperation. She responded but her fervour was lacking and paltry in comparison to his. He wanted her hand to fist in his hair, her wanted her to moan into his mouth but she did neither and only moved her lips obligingly against his.

"I need to talk to you, please," he implored and got off her, wincing at the contrast between her heat and the room's cool temperature. Wrapping an arm about her waist and pulling her to him, he managed to shift them beneath the eiderdown. Rose was awarding him with the most bemused of expressions, the ardour of a just a few moments ago gone.

"About what?" she asked warily, shifting slightly out of his hold but he pulled her back to him gently.

Scorpius gave a fraught sigh. "I don't want to do this anymore."

"What, this?" Rose questioned her eyes conveying that her thoughts were well beyond confused.

Scorpius gave a rueful smile; he'd never seen her allow herself to show this level of mystification. It endeared her just that much more to him.

"Not _this_," he corrected with the palest imitation of a smirk. "If it were up to me, we'd never leave this room."

"That what is _this _thing?"

"This is me blackmailing you; I don't want to do it anymore."

Rose was immediately suspicious; he saw it in her eyes and wished she weren't. He wished she didn't always think the worst of him.

"Why?" she demanded waspishly.

"Are you going to believe me if I tell you?" he asked sadly as he ran the back of his fingers across her temple, effectively pushing another auburn strand away from her face. Now that he was almost certain there'd be a slim chance of him actually being with her, he had the strangest and completely reasoned urge to be tender with her. He noted wryly that she hadn't winced at his gentleness as she'd been all night every time he expressed some sort of affection.

"Depends if you're credible," she replied charily. "So tell me, why doesn't blackmailing me hold your interests anymore?"

"I'm going to monologue for a bit; do you mind?"

Rose' lips gave a weak, involuntary quirk. "I'll try not to."

"I know that in that brief period last year that we dated, I probably made for being a shit boyfriend and I honestly do regret what happened and how we parted but I really did like you. "

"Touching," Rose rebuked sharply in a tone that told him she didn't actually believe him. "Get to the point."

Scorpius did his best to avoid his scowl showing. He was literally spilling his guts out to her and she was choosing to ridicule him. Perhaps this wasn't as good an idea as Nick has made it out to be. He could live with just sex from her right?

No.

The realization alone was what made him continue.

"I do like you, Rose," he said candidly. "I thought I wanted you for the sex at first but I want you for more than that now."

"You blew your chance last year and you blew any second chances last night," Rose clipped coldly, edging out of his hold. "I caught you _in a threesome_ last year whilst you were _dating_ me! I caught you with Marissa whilst you were casually shagging me! I know you said you would but it's courteous to have one shagging partner at a time, not three! And Isobel! I can't even begin to ponder why Isobel specifically."

Scorpius hung his head. He really had been quite a bastard hadn't he? "I caught you with Miller yesterday," he said quietly.

Rose blinked once before she choked out, "what?"

"I saw you and Miller about to do it in your office. It was me who blasted the door," he admitted with no remorse for his actions.

Comprehension dawned on Rose features and she stared at him with a parted mouth for a bit before she managed to calmly breathe out, "So Isobel was to spite me, was she?"

"Yes… all I could think then was how could you allow him to take you the same way I did on theoretically the same table that I'd made you moan and writhe and come on?"

The blush that assaulted her cheeks was voracious but she replied single-mindedly, "He's my boyfriend! He can take me anyway he wants whenever he wants."

Her words were more forceful than successive bludger strikes to the gut. Hadn't Nick said a similar thing? This wasn't supposed to hurt like this, was it? He was very tempted to just leave her now but he did just want to finish with her with some kind of guarantee that perhaps, just perhaps, he'd have a shot with her in the future.

Screw fancy, articulate words. He'd just tell her straight out and leave her presence before she scarred him any further.

"I love you," he said promptly. "My past actions don't really convey that sentiment but it's true. I do love you, Rose. I don't want to blackmail you anymore, I don't want you just for sex and until I can have you –_if_ I can have you– the way I want, you're free to see and sleep with whoever you want."

He bent and placed a swift, small kiss on her lips before he left the bed and rummaged in his discarded robe for the envelope of pictures he'd brought. He threw them onto the rumpled sheets where Rose stared at them disbelievingly.

"They're the original pictures. I don't have copies. Do whatever you want with them," he said and fished for his clothes, moving around the room to find the previously flung articles.

By the time he'd tracked down all his clothes, Rose had sat up and was staring at the pictures in her hand, the envelope discarded. Scorpius stood and simply watched her, wondering if he'd ever get to see her like this again.

She was sat naked in the middle of the bed, the cream sheets of silk pooled about her, her auburn hair -wild and unkempt- cascading down her back and shoulders and just shielding her nipples from view. In that moment, she was perfect. And she was his for this one last moment. On an impulse, he crossed the room to stand beside the bed and when she looked up at him expectantly, he leaned down and claimed her lips tenderly before he intensified the kiss by placing a hand upon her neck, respectively drawing her closer and lightly sucking on her bottom lip until her lips parted underneath his and he allowed his tongue this final taste of her succulent mouth.

What made leaving her just that much harder was her response. Instead of merely moving her lips against his dutifully, Rose met every sensation with a moan and her hands gripped his shoulders tightly, pressing against him fully and after a struggle, forcing his tongue of her mouth to give herself the dubious pleasure of memorizing the crevasse of his mouth.

Scorpius was prepared to remain kissing her like this until next year for all he cared but she pulled back and pushed him away, panting heavily. "Enough," was all she said and refused to meet his gaze.

Not nearly enough.

Ignoring his every carnal instinct, he made to get off the bed but a flash of black caught his gaze and his eyes fell on the knickers he'd pulled off with his teeth hours before. He was a trophy man and he did want a reminder of this night and Rose would most definitely notice… hastily, he slid the knickers into his robe pocket and turned away from the bed before Rose could raise her gaze once more and silently left.


	6. Part 6

**Part 6**

The village of Hogsmeade had never looked lovelier with its picturesque cottages swathed in snow and the snow-capped highland hills serving as a breathtaking backdrop. Scorpius was having difficulty appreciating this beauty. He stuffed his hands deep into his jacket pocket as he made his way down the main street, passing the post office and Scrivenshaft's Quill shop.

He was almost starting to wish he'd taken his mother up on her offer to spend Christmas with her and his father in the Alps _again, _but the thought of another Christmas spent in a luxurious condo that was not theirs amidst the Swiss mountains had him expelling that thought. His parents liked to spend Christmas abroad but to Scorpius it was the same routine, just a different resort each time. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd spent Christmas at the Manor. Hence he'd mostly spent his Christmases at Hogwarts with his friends and girlfriends of the festive month.

This Christmas however was turning out to be decidedly unpleasant.

Rose had gone home for the holidays and although this meant a reprieve from the sickening sight of her and Miller, he missed stealing glances of her throughout the castle. He'd also been unable to decipher her reaction to his giving her the pictures seeing as how she'd left a day after their last meeting. Nick had also left for a quiet holiday with his parents ensuring a mind-numbingly boring break. Added to which, Miller had also stayed behind. So had his sister. Both of whom took to glaring daggers at him every time he was within a fifty metre radius.

He ignored this. Isobel's ire was understandable; he'd kicked her out of bed before she'd even gotten down from the high of orgasm but her brother? Why the fuck was he so bloody pissed? Possibly about his sister, sure, but what business was that of his?

Detouring into the Three Broomsticks for a butterbeer, he groaned as he saw Isobel and her brother sat at a table near the bar. Disregarding them, he ordered and paid for a butterbeer before promptly walking out and deciding he'd rather consume his butterbeer outside in the snow than inside the pub where he would be subject to glares of a first degree nature.

Leisurely, he sipped on his butterbeer and window shopped for a while. He was quite glad that the only people he had to gift were his parents, grandparents, his aunt and Nick. How on Earth did Rose managed to give gifts to all those cousins and aunts and uncles… it was a surprise she wasn't broke at the beginning of each new year. And not to mention birthdays…. Scorpius shuddered. He'd always mourned only having one cousin but now that he thought it about it, one cousin was more than enough, thank you very much.

He passed an emporium and his gaze locked on the display of the winking red haired mannequin, his feet slowing as a thought materialized into his head. Why in Hades hadn't he bought Rose a present yet?

They were back. The students that gone home for the holidays. And as they filled the entrance hall, Scorpius found himself slouching against a wall, surreptitiously seeking out Rose as she came in. He knew he'd find her the moment he set eyes on her unique auburn hair but up until now, he hadn't seen a trace of her. Nick approached him after a few more minutes looking superiorly smug.

"You came down here just to greet me?" he gushed mockingly. "How sweet of you!"

"Dream on," Scorpius said waspishly and slapped his friend around the back of his head. "Like I'd ever swing _your_ way."

Nick shrugged and stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets as he emulated Scorpius and leaned against the wall as well, his eyes on the passing students. "I know why you're here."

Scorpius grunted noncommittally.

"It's funny how her blackmailing, cheating ex is here to see her and her perfectly good boyfriend isn't," Nick mused wryly as his eyes scanned the sea of faces. No need to ask who _her_ was.

Scorpius frowned. He looked around him and indeed there was no sign of that glorified pillock. Odd. Why wouldn't he come to greet his girlfriend after a two week break?

"Perhaps they got into a disagreement?" he suggested hopefully.

"Over a two week holiday spent apart?" Nick asked sardonically, his eyebrow arching doubtfully. To Scorpius' dismay, Nick had a point. It was unlikely that Rose had managed to get into a rift with saint perfection. "Look, there she is." Nick suddenly said and Scorpius followed his gaze to the point a few metres before the castle door and there she stood.

He'd missed her.

And looking at her now, drinking her in, he knew just how much he'd missed her.

A lot.

Her auburn hair was windswept and had imprisoned a few snowflakes beneath her hat, her cheeks were rosy from the cold and made a lovely contrast with her pale skin and he felt his lips quirk upwards slightly. Two weeks of boredom, two weeks of frustration and now that was all forgotten with a simple glance at her.

"Wipe that bloody grin off your face," Nick admonished in mock disgusted tones. "You look like a sap."

"The only thing that's making me a sap is being your friend," Scorpius rebuked but forced his lips back into a straight line. His eyes however remained fixed on Rose as she chatted with her large group of cousins.

"Your affection for me warms my heart, it really does," Nick drawled and pushed himself off the wall before grabbing Scorpius' arm. "Lets go before Rose realises you probably came down here to stalk her; I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate it and neither would Miller."

"Miller isn't even here."

"Now he is," Nick muttered and nodded towards Rose and Scorpius turned back round to look at Rose with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Trust miller to fuck up what was turning out to be his best day out of these past two rotten weeks. He watched with a panging jealousy as Miller snaked his arms about Rose' waist from the back and she turned to face him, surprised before a smile spread across her lips, she mumbled something to him and then leaned forward to kiss him. Scorpius looked away pointedly.

"They've stopped," Nick said quietly after a few moments and Scorpius looked back to find that Rose and Miller were still held in an embrace but were merely talking now. He yearned to have her in his arms right now but being petty and wishing to use colourful hexes on Miller's anatomy really weren't going to help his case so he just ended up sighing heavily and turned to walk away.

Nick was right behind him. "I'm sorry," he said ruefully.

"Don't be," Scorpius snarled, Nick's pity turning his dejection to fury. "I don't want your pity. I told her how I feel; if she wants me she knows where to find me."

And he hurried his pace and left the castle to endure the inclement weather.

The Ravenclaw common room was getting too loud. Most of the students were sat catching up with their friends and Rose found herself unable to procrastinate any longer. It was almost eight and she had a certain errand to run before she met up with Ian and the Prefects for the first meeting of the New Year.

She excused herself from her friends and left the common room, pulling the new cardigan her grandmother had given her tighter around herself. The castle was perilously cold in January. She checked her watch and saw that she had over twenty minutes to find Scorpius and say what she had in mind before she would be due in her office. The only problem there was that she had no idea where Scorpius was right now. He could be out snogging a new girl or skulking around the castle or in the Slytherin common room… she didn't really feel like going into the Slytherin common room but in comparison with the other two options, it wasn't really all that bad.

Unwillingly, she began to make her way down to the dungeons pondering how she was going to phrase her words in a way that didn't sound stupid. Before she could get further than the fifth floor however, she saw a figure that would help her in her quest.

"Nicholas," she called and ran up to him. Nick turned round and his lips quirked into a brief, confused smile.

"Rose," he greeted as she stopped before him. "Hi."

"Hi," she smiled. "Had a good holiday?"

"Not bad. You?"

Rose pulled a face. "It was okay; too loud with that many cousins but…_okay_."

Nick merely smiled coolly and a pregnant silence lingered before Rose broke it with a slight blush to her cheeks. "Um… listen, do you know where Scorpius is?"

She saw his eyebrow arch in curiosity and surprise and she kept her blush in check. Of course he was going to be surprised. She was seeking out her ex for a talk after a two week break prior to which he'd finally decided to stop blackmailing her. If there was anything she should be doing at the moment it was avoiding Scorpius Malfoy and pretending his unworthy self didn't exist, not looking for him for a heart-to-heart.

"Yeah, he went down to the kitchens to pilfer some food about five minutes ago."

"Thanks, she said, her feet already beginning to move away. "I'll see you in classes tomorrow."

"You too," Nick replied and then he disappeared out of sight as she began to run down towards the kitchens. It wouldn't take him that long to get some food off the elves and the passage to his common room was a stone's throw away so she ran in the hope that she'd be able to find him and wouldn't have to go through talking to him tomorrow after classes.

By chance, she only just caught a glimpse of him before he took the staircase that lead towards the dungeons.

"Malfoy," she called and ran up to him, thankful that she'd managed to catch him.

Scorpius turned round and his confusion was palpable in his mercurial eyes as she stopped before him.

"Rose," he greeted slowly, suspiciously. No surprise.

"Hi," she said a little breathlessly and raised a hand to push away the stray curl that had fallen onto her forehead. She paused, unsure of what to say next and he just stared at her with an arched eyebrow and when she could bear the silence no longer she blurted out quickly. "How was your holiday?"

"Uneventful and tedious," he replied bluntly. "How was yours?" he added in a tone tinted with dryness.

"I've had better," she shrugged, slightly more at ease that they were talking… civilly. "I need to talk to you for a bit. Do you mind?"

He was a little surprised, she could tell. His eyes widened a little and he looked somewhat confused before he regained his composure and asked steadily. "What do you want to talk about?"

There lay the rub, right?

"Just a few things," Rose answered ambiguously. Things not fit for discussing in the middle of the entrance hall. "Do you want to step into an empty classroom first?"

He nodded and followed her up a staircase until they'd reached the second floor Transfiguration corridor and she tried out the first door to her right. Luckily, it was unlocked and she stepped in and took a seat on one of the desks by the window. Scorpius quietly followed her example and sat down on the bench in front of her, facing her. She silently inspected him for a brief period, her eyes journeying from his furtive eyes to the soft curves of his lips… his lips _were_ undeniably nice. And talented.

Where the bloody hell had that thought come from? She was with Ian. Ian was the one who had nice lips, not Scorpius.

_Ian does have nice lips but Scorpius' are nicer_, a snidely scornful voice spoke up in her head.

Shaking her head to clear it just a little in the hope of ceasing such treacherous thoughts, she decided that mincing words right now really wasn't going to help her. Neither was being so close to him. It was quite distracting in an oddly pleasant kind of way. She could smell his unique cologne at this proximity; it was faint but just as heady as she'd remembered.

"Why did you give me the pictures?" she asked boldly, brazening it out.

Apparently he was expecting everything but that question. His eyebrows shot up and his lips quirked downwards into a grimace, his eyes becoming stormy.

"I told you why I gave you those pictures," he growled and made to get off the desk but Rose' was quick to snap a reply at him before he could move an inch.

"I don't believe you. I don't believe you don't have copies either."

He stood deathly still for a while, his face turned away from hers and when he turned to look at her after many moments, his eyes were shuttered and cold. "Believe what you want. I told the truth; it's your choice if you want to accept it and live in ease or reject it and live in constant paranoia of what I would do with the so called copies," he bit and the bitterness in his voice was so flagrant, it took Rose back a little. Not too much for her argument to completely crumble though.

"Do you really love me?" she asked in a quiet, dignified voice. Scorpius remained silent, his eyes defiantly on hers. "You never once acted like you loved me," she noted sadly and looked away from his fiery gaze. "That's why I don't believe you."

"What are you asking of me?" he asked carefully. "To show you that I love you whilst you have a boyfriend?"

"No!" she said quickly. "No… just… I want to believe that there really are no ulterior motives to your actions this time."

"I told you the truth," he snarled furiously. "Is it too much to believe that I truly have changed and do love you? What's so hard to believe about that, Rose?"

"You hurt me repeatedly!" Rose yelled back. "You don't hurt the ones you love."

"I corrected everything I'd done to you this year by giving you back those photos," he made a point to remind her. "I apologised and I told you I love you and ultimately, I stopped _hurting_ you. What more can you ask of me?"

"To stay away from me and not meddle in my life," she said darkly and put her hand into her pocket and extracted the little navy velvet box she'd received on Christmas day. She opened it and set it on the desk, allowing him to get a good look at the exquisite diamond earrings within it. "Do these earrings look familiar to you?" she asked coldly.

Ah.

"I hadn't pegged _this_ down as your reaction," he muttered with a black look as he raised his gaze from the box to her eyes.

"This must've cost you more than my whole Christmas presents put together," she hissed.

"And you're complaining _why_?"

"Because I have a boyfriend! I don't want romantic gestures from you; I don't want you to spend money on a present I won't accept let alone appreciate. Here," and she closed the box and shoved it towards him.

Scorpius gave her and the box a cold look of derision before he sneered hatefully and left, leaving her and the sparkling earrings to the silence of the room.

"Samantha?" Nicholas asked incredulously as Scorpius winked at a giggling Samantha over breakfast the next morning. "This doesn't forebode well."

"What?" Scorpius asked innocently, internally wincing. Nick had his incredulity in the right place. Was he seriously considering Samantha again? After Rose, would there really be a chance for someone like Samantha?

In all honesty, Scorpius knew she didn't have a cat's chance in hell. Still, he needed a distraction. Samantha was good quality for a distraction. Or at least, her body was.

"Samantha wasn't up to your standards less than two months ago. She is now?" Nick asked lightly as he bit into his toast.

"Never will be up to my standards," Scorpius shrugged. "But she makes for good recreation."

"You can't do that again," Nick surprised Scorpius by snapping grimly. "You can't go back to squandering girls for fun. If you're not willing to wait for Rose, get yourself a girlfriend!"

"I don't want a girlfriend," Scorpius bit. Actually he did. But he didn't want her unless her name was Rose Weasley.

"How many times have I told you to not lie to me?" Nick rolled his eyes. "You want Rose as a girlfriend but you can't have her yet. Until you do, date other people and see if there's someone you're actually willing to like in more than just a physical way."

The plonker was right. As always. Still, it would be fun to pull his leg….

"I think Dominique Weasley is _fascinating_," he said slyly, fighting back his indulgent smile as he saw Nick's movement slow and his eyes harden. Was he going to finally admit to liking her or cover up his little crush with some logical argument related to his situation with Rose?

"It wouldn't do you any favours with Rose if you went out with her cousin," he said slowly, his voice stiffer than usual. Scorpius smirked. Idiot. If he wasn't going to make a move soon, someone else surely was; that girl's mum was French _and_ part veela. She wasn't going to stay on the market for long. "Hey, did Rose manage to catch you yesterday after you left the kitchens?"

Ah. So Rose had asked Nick about his whereabouts, had she?

"Yes," he replied tightly, the reminder of yesterday evening still fresh and cutting. How dare she complain about him appreciating her enough to buy her a Christmas present worth more than he'd care to remember and end up telling him off for loving her? It was almost enough to make him wish he detested her with every fibre of his being. Anything would've been better than this unrequited love.

_Love_. It made him want to snicker at the word. Since when did _he_ fall in _love_?

"What did she want to talk about?" Nick probed curiously.

Better get this humiliation over and done with.

"She demanded to know why I gave her the pictures back, told me she doesn't trust me, doesn't like that I love her and tried to give me back the Christmas present I sent her."

"_Ouch_," Nick's soft voice hissed and Scorpius wasn't sure if he meant to say it only to himself or whether he was supposed to hear as well. "What did you do?"

"I walked out on her."

Nick looked commiserating. It was his latest fad and Scorpius really did wish to hex that disgusting pitying look on his face. Damn Rose Weasley to hell and back a thousand times over for turning him into a pity-worthy fool.

Scorpius had a new girlfriend on his arm two days after their confrontation. Rose wasn't surprised but it was with disappointment that she took this latest to development to mean that he had lied to her about being in love with her. If he loved her why would he blatantly flaunt his latest conquest before her eyes and act as if he hadn't a care in the world whether she objected to him shoving his tongue down her throat for a full two minutes without coming up for air.

Not that she objected. Of course she didn't! He was perfectly allowed to have a girlfriend… she just wished he didn't have to parade that fact before her. Especially after lying to her about loving her. Rose furtively watched him and Vivienne Harris flirt unashamedly as they waited outside second period charms.

Vivienne Harris… really?

To the best of Rose' knowledge Vivienne wasn't on par with Scorpius' usual taste in girls. Vivienne was smart and cultured to an intimidating level. With her father being the Head of The Department of International Magical Co-operation, she spent her holidays in a different country each week and spoke three foreign languages. Rose knew enough French to get by in a conversation but she could barely string a sentence of any other language. Her Uncle Charlie had once tried to teach her Romanian but she'd just ended up furrowing her brow and shaking her head so he'd given up on her.

The fact that Vivienne was also high-up in the looks department was just another bonus. She was tall, taller than Rose by a good few inches, brunette and confident and assured of her knowledge and beauty to a degree that usually put boys off. Scorpius, it seemed, happened to like that in her.

Looking away pointedly as the two began to kiss again –Vivienne giggling happily against Scorpius' lips– she gave a small, relieved smile to see Albus and Ian approach her. Albus turned up his nose as he set eyes on Scorpius and Vivienne.

"I just had breakfast and that's making me queasy," he grimaced as he turned his gaze away from the pair to Rose. "Why don't you break them up?"

"Because then it would be hypocritical of me to do this," she smiled sweetly and pulled Ian to her for a very telling, deep kiss. Ignoring the part of her that wanted Scorpius to notice the kiss she slowly moved her lips against Ian's who responded eagerly and granted her access to his mouth when her tongue lightly begged entrance with a stroke along his bottom lip.

Pulling back with her breathing very shallow, she smiled coyly at Ian and very surreptitiously glanced at Scorpius to see if he had noticed.

He had.

He was looking at her peculiarly, his eyes dusky as he took her in but as soon as her eyes had found his, he turned to Vivienne and engaged her in conversation once again.

Rose hid her satisfaction that he'd noticed and sent another dazzling smile at Ian.

Vivienne, it turned out, wasn't just another conquest.

There was a very telling, irked feeling in the pit of Rose' stomach at this truth but she did not like to delve into the meaning of that feeling and convinced herself that it was merely the sight of the pair trying to eat each other's faces at every possible turn around the castle that had her insides clenching uncomfortably. She really was tired of barely walking fifty feet without somehow seeing them locked in an embrace. She never broke them up. It was duplicitous or her to break them up when she kissed Ian around school whenever the opportunity arose. Not that she was kissing him much nowadays.

This time was just one time too many however.

Scorpius and Vivienne were out behind the greenhouses snogging enthusiastically. Scorpius had Vivienne trapped between him and the greenhouse wall, his eyes closed, his lips moving carefully against Vivienne's as she responded dotingly. The scene hurt on a level that she didn't want to explore. He'd never once kissed her like that. Never. And here little miss I-can-speak-three-bloody-foreign-languages was being kissed as if she were his goddamned wife.

"Malfoy, Harris," she said clearly to get their attention but when all they did was continue to kiss she heaved a frustrated sigh and gave her voice a cutting edge, raising her tone. "Malfoy! Harris!"

They broke apart, Vivienne smiling, not the hint of a blush upon her cheeks and Scorpius with a very devious, innocently dry curve of his lips. "Yes, Weasley?"

"Class is about to start," she grumbled, choosing not to address the topic of their very blatantly enthusiastic kissing.

Well, it was about to start!

… in five minutes.

She turned to make her way back to the queue outside greenhouse three but was stopped by Nick. "Rose," he said. "Do you want to walk about for a bit before class starts?"

Puzzled, for Nick had never taken part in a conversation with her unless she'd instigated it, she glanced back at Albus but found him chatting to a fellow Gryffindor. "Yeah, I suppose," she mumbled and followed him away from the greenhouses towards the banks of the lake.

"How're you?" he asked frankly and Rose let out a small chuckle despite her dour mood. "What?" Nick looked taken aback at her reaction.

"You pulled me aside to ask how I'm doing?" she giggled.

Nick's lips quirked slightly. "Isn't that what friends do?"

"Yeah but they don't usually need to pull each other aside to ask something as simple as 'how're you?'"

"A simple how're you isn't the whole reason why I'm pulling you aside," he admitted and Rose sobered up, immediately knowing what the remainder of the reason was. She glanced back at the greenhouse to where Scorpius had been but he'd taken heed to her words and was in line with the rest of the class. Vivienne was beside him but his eyes were focused solely on her and Nick. She turned back to Nick to find that he was looking between her and Scorpius.

"Did you know about the pictures?" she asked slowly as they took a few steps towards the coppice of trees beside this particular edge of the lake.

"I found out when you began going out with Miller," Nick said before he sighed heavily. "To his credit, I don't think he actually planned on publishing them, even if you did refuse. It was just a way to get you to do what he wanted."

"No," she exhaled with a shake of her head. "He doesn't work like that. Don't make excuses for him."

"He's not serious about Vivienne, you know. She's to make you jealous."

"I don't want him to make me jealous!" she snapped irately. "I'm perfectly content with my boyfriend and if he's simply using Harris as a means to get me jealous, then he should stop it. It's not fair to her."

"Rose," Nick began heavily in a tone that suggested he was going to lecture. Rose scowled but allowed him to continue without interruption. "You may not feel very forgiving or trustful of him at the moment but you need to know that he does try."

"Try to what? Meddle in my life by trying to get between me and my boyfriend? Yeah, he's doing a fine job of that," she bit ungraciously.

Nick looked impatient with her comments and he sent a passing scowl at her. "He tries to give you what you want, which is to leave you alone but he can't really do that; he likes you too much to completely stay away from you and despite knowing that you and Miller are together, he can't help but hope that he still has a chance and he's trying his absolute hardest not to cock up that chance."

"Tell him he'd doesn't have a chance or the slightest ghost of a chance. I don't…" she began but cut off with a sigh before inhaling deeply. "I can't trust him, Nick. I can't trust to give him my heart again and have him shred it to pieces before my eyes. He'll never be content with just one girl and I'm really not into having my partner doing other people behind my back. "

"He always was a bit of a duffer at fidelity," Nick smiled wryly. "But he has changed. After you caught him with Marissa, he didn't sleep with anyone but you. I think he chose not to tell you because you were with Miller and was afraid you'd reject him even if he did tell you."

Rose blinked, stunned. Scorpius Malfoy had tried fidelity for her? She'd need proof if she was ever going to believe this one. "I… I don't know," she struggled for words quietly, still reeling from that possibly true or possibly not true revelation.

"Take your time," Nick advised softly. "Just don't completely cut off the idea of being with him again."

"I'll see what I can do," she muttered and glanced back towards the greenhouse only to find that most of the class had filed in. Scorpius remained stood outside, watching them. Vivienne was nowhere to be seen.

Really! To make her jealous… what was there to be jealous of?

Still… two could play at that game.

"You're such a good friend, Nick," she smiled warmly as she turned back to him and stepped forward to wrap her arms around him. He remained frozen for a few moments before he uncertainly put his arms around her and Rose smiled into his shoulder, tightening her hold and grinning at the thought of Scorpius witnessing the entire event.


	7. Part 7

**Part 7**

February stole over the castle quickly and before Rose knew it her professors were already lecturing them to begin studying for their NEWTs. Which was a very well-reasoned request but Rose suddenly found her life swarmed with problems that had little to do with studying for exams and more to do with the thorny and sticky dilemmas of her love life.

What had been a perfectly happy relationship between her and Ian were now awkward, bad-tempered, fluctuating meetings between two people with little to say to each other. Her conversations with Ian rarely got past their Head duties and it had been quite a while since she'd actually let him kiss her or do anything remotely intimate. It wasn't easy to pinpoint the exact moment when this unwelcome change had happened but she held an unsolicited suspicion that it had been after Scorpius and Vivienne had decided to permanently play husband and wife.

The atrocity of it!

Scorpius Malfoy didn't stay with one girl for over a month unless he was cheating on her. And to the best of Rose' knowledge –according to her sources anyway- he hadn't slept with anyone who wasn't called Vivienne Harris. Nick had also confirmed that he hadn't slept with Vivienne either and in a fantastic display of stupidity, she was glad about that. She really didn't want to delve too much into why that was.

On the first Sunday evening of February Rose grabbed a jacket and made her way out of the castle intent on walking around the grounds to clear her head from the sulky sentiments an argumentative meeting with Ian had brought about. She'd gotten no further than the greenhouses before she changed track and her feet began to take her towards the Quidditch pitch. The Slytherin team had been practicing earlier but she'd seen them leave through one of the windows. Some time alone sat in the stands with nothing but the blowing wind about her might do her some good and allow her to think properly.

As she slipped underneath the stands and emerged on the edge of pitch she noticed that the pitch wasn't quite as deserted as she'd previously thought. Scorpius was forty feet in the air and shooting bewitched quaffles towards the hoops over half the pitch away. He was failing spectacularly at scoring.

She continued to watch him, entranced with the way his butterscotch blond hair stood out against the green of his robes and the brown of the stands. When all the quaffles had been shot (and missed) he flew to the foot of the hopes to collect them but in doing so, he caught sight of her just before the stands. The quaffles were immediately abandoned and he slowly flew towards her as she took a few tentative steps.

He stopped before her and dismounted smoothly.

"Hi," she said awkwardly. "I was watching," she added unnecessarily.

"I gathered," he drawled leisurely. "How would you rate me?"

She pretended to think about it before she said solemnly, "Two."

Scorpius' jaw dropped indignantly and his frown deepened. "Two? Be serious, Weasley."

"I am serious!" Rose said indignantly. "Surely you realize that when about three of fifty quaffles actually go through the hoops that you're hopeless?"

"Hopeless?" he repeated blankly before he shook his head. "Our first conversation in almost two months and you tell me I'm hopeless at Quidditch? Cheers."

"Anytime," she grinned, amused by the conversation more than embarrassed.

"What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Wanted a walk," she shrugged. "Bit cold for a walk though; my arse is freezing."

"If I had a cloak, rest assured I would've given it to you. But alas, I don't."

Rose sent him the most peculiar, wary look before she replied at a length. "Thanks." And then she was quite at a loss for what to say. They looked at each other awkwardly for a few minutes with the gusty wind blowing about them before she smiled sheepishly. "I guess I should probably get going."

He just nodded and Rose made to walk away but found herself suddenly quite unwilling to leave. She was content to just stay there and watch the wind blow his hair about his face. It had grown quite a bit since she'd last taken care to note the length of it.

Scorpius' lip quirked a little but his eyes had turned stormy and he watched carefully as she finally moved her legs, but not in the direction she had planned to take. Her body came into contact with his unexpectedly as impulse raced through her body and she wrapped her arms about his neck as she brought her lips crashing upon his. Her heart pumped erratically fast as he responded with fervour to rival her own but her mind did a little sigh and her stomach fluttered happily. He gently parted her lips and she complied his searching tongue before it came together with hers in a warm recognition. She could not help the soft moan that escaped her lips into his mouth as his hands possessively gripped her waist. She remembered the feel of this; the taste of his mouth; the way he'd differentiate between soft and demanding depending on how he read her reactions.

And she missed it.

"I missed you," he muttered breathlessly against her lips, pulling back long enough to whisper those words against her lips before he gifted her with a long, suckling kiss that had her purring contentedly against his chest.

Before she could so much as respond with a truthful 'me too' a voice had cracked like a whip across their brief rhapsodic reverie and broken it without a second's hesitation.

"I can't believe you!"

They broke apart to see a bewildered Vivienne glaring daggers at them, not ten feet away.

Rose expected Scorpius to give her the same line he'd given numerous others with a careless shrug and a cold look but to her disappointment, he broke away from her and took a few steps towards Vivienne.

"Viv, it's not what it looks like," he began with a sigh but she silenced him with a withering glower.

"Don't you 'it's not what it looks likes' me, Scorpius Malfoy. This is _exactly_ what it looks like!"

She turned on her heel and marched away out of the stands and Scorpius only gave Rose one last glance before he ran after Vivienne, calling for her.

Rose was left to the cold and the stinging of her eyes.

Vivienne was appeased enough the next day to allow Scorpius to sit next to her in charms.

Rose tried very hard not to notice this.

She also tried to notice how Ian had finally deserted his seat next to her in favour for the empty seat next to Louise Wilson at the front of the class.

She left that class at the end of the day in a grim mood and was the first to leave when she was stopped by Ian.

He sidestepped her smoothly so she had to stop before him and she furiously wished her eyes and nose weren't as red as she imagined them to be. She had a cold damnit! Going out into the grounds with no cloak did that to a person.

"Signs about the next Hogsmeade trip," he said shortly, straight to the chase as he'd never been, as he handed her four big posters. To be put up in each House's common room immediately. I'd help but I have detention supervision."

"Okay," she mumbled without protest and stared at him for a moment longer as he did the same before he sighed and walked away. She watched him with a heavy feeling in her torso. What had happened to them? How could they so easily just fall apart?

Setting aside her thoughts –because it was so much easier this way– she valiantly tried to ignore Vivienne and Scorpius as they emerged out of the classroom and made her way up to Ravenclaw Tower, wanting to start with somewhere familiar and have a chance to dump her bag in her room and change out of her uniform.

Hufflepuff came next and having always been the placid lot of the Hogwarts crowd, Rose faced no difficulties or questions about her presence in their common room. She put up the sign without loitering and left, very much not looking forward to going to either Gryffindor or Slytherin common room.

The Slytherin dungeons were closer so she slowly made her way down the cold corridor that lead to the stone wall that guarded their common room, praying to deity above not to see Scorpius there. She really could do without seeing him right now.

Upon entering the common room, she did a quick search for Scorpius' distinctive blonde hair and breathed a huge sigh of relief when she didn't spot it. Still, there was the chance that he'd come any minute so she immediately made her way over to the notice board at the far end of the room and magically fixed the notice.

The Slytherins didn't stare at her the way they used to when she first got the post and had come into their common room for a few errands and now crowded around her curiously as she put up the notice. The girls squealed and beamed, the boys groaned. They would. Of all the days to have a Hogsmeade weekend, it had to be on Valentine's day… with her relationship with Ian going so _swimmingly_, Rose resented this fact as well.

Making her way through the growing throng around the notice board, she quickened her pace in the hope of leaving this room unscathed but unfortunately, luck didn't seem to be favouring her much these days. Scorpius was standing just inside the entrance to the common room, stood deathly still and staring at her with a gaze she was becoming quite familiar with; smouldering, enigmatic, conflicted.

Her eyes slammed to the floor and she hurried towards the wall, fully intent on ignoring him and just fleeing. Her eyes were beginning to prickle a little and she would loathe to be caught crying in the midst of the Slytherin lair. She was just a few feet off now… a few more footsteps… she was brushing past him… she'd almost made it …. Just a few more steps….

"Rose," his voice came and his hand caught her fingers before she could reach the wall.

She tried to pull her hand away from his but his grip was stronger than hers.

"Please, let me go," she whispered, not turning round to face him, hoping upon hope that they weren't attracting too much attention.

"We need to talk, Rosie," his soft voice came.

The four most dreaded words in the English language. Something within Rose seethed and snapped at them.

"We have nothing to talk about, Scorpius!" she yelled and forcefully yanked her hand out of his before shooting out of the common room before her tears got the better of her and spilled onto her cheeks. She fled until she was a few floors up before she found a deserted corridor and leaned heavily against the wall, disallowing the tears that wanted to spill from her eyes. Breathing deeply for a long time helped and when she'd gathered herself well enough for her to seem normal, she continued on her way up to Gryffindor Tower.

To her misfortune, Albus snatched her the moment she'd finished pinning the sign and Rose half-heartedly took part in a conversation whilst keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of Vivienne. She didn't want to see a trace of that girl at the moment.

"How're things with Ian?" Albus suddenly asked and Rose fought back a grimace.

_Fantastically shit, thanks for asking._

"Fine," Rose muttered reluctantly, mentally fishing for a subject to talk about that wasn't Ian, wasn't Scorpius, wasn't Valentine's Day and had bollocks to do with her.

"Things don't look fine," Albus pointed out, his lips twisting into a sympathetic grimace.

"Look, I don't know what's going on between us at the moment and I'd appreciate it if you just let me be until I can talk about it," she sighed, trying to keep the irritable tone out of her voice and most likely failing.

Albus looked like he understood. Which probably meant that he did. So there might _one_ benefit from open relationships after all…

Before he could invest her in another discussion however, Rose found herself being shadowed by a tall, unsolicited figure. She looked up into the determined face of Vivienne. Grand. Just what she needed to complete a perfect day.

"Yes?" she asked, really wishing to clip out the insolent '_what?_' that she had wanted to say instead.

"I want a word," Vivienne said in a credible tone, very business like and straight to the point.

"Busy. Sorry," she said shortly and turned to Albus, effectively dismissing her.

Or not so effectively.

"It's important," Vivienne persisted.

Rose clucked her tongue rudely. Merlin, this was so what she did not want; a heart-to-heart with Vivienne Harris most likely about Scorpius. "Can't it wait?" she demanded.

"No, it can't," Vivienne looked quite pissed off now. Good. "It won't take long."

"Fine," Rose harrumphed and mumbled a goodbye to a bemused Albus before she followed Vivienne out of the Tower. Apparently, it was _that _important if it warranted straying away from the entire Gryffindor Tower. Oh, Joy!

Not.

"Can we get this over and done with? I'm really not into sneaking into empty classrooms for a heartfelt chitchat with you."

"And you think I am?" Vivienne sneered and stepped into an unused charms office. Rose warily followed her and closed the door behind her. "I don't want to talk circles around you so let me say this once and make sure you understand me perfectly clear."

Rose stared defiantly and crossed her arms across her chest as she leaned against the wall. "Start talking then," she sniped.

"I'm really into other girls going after my boyfriend and you, Rose Weasley, want my boyfriend. I won't allow it. Scorpius is mine and he's going to remain mine for a long time to come, so don't get your hopes up and chase after him."

Rose merely stared for a few moments before she let out a singularly, humourless laugh and forced herself to lie. Self perseveration really did rank high in priorities right now. "You get me wrong; I don't want your boyfriend. It was just nostalgia yesterday that made me kiss him. Normally I wouldn't go near him with a fifty foot pole."

"What's to say nostalgia won't entice you to kiss him again?"

"Oh please," Rose sneered, mentally cringing at her next words. "Scorpius Malfoy was the worst boyfriend I ever had; did you know we broke up because I caught him in a threesome? I'd also make an educated guess he was also probably screwing twenty others behind my back but hey, I'm just telling you about my favourite characteristic of his; his inability to favour fidelity."

"He's changed," Vivienne said confidently, looking mostly unperturbed by her words. "And you want him back."

Rose rolled her eyes to the heavens. Back to that. "Yeah, I definitely want him back so I can watch him shred my heart again as he cheats on me again and again. Get over yourself and put your mind at ease; no one wants your boyfriend, love."

And she turned her back on Vivienne and walked out, only a slight guilt in her stomach at the words to have escaped her lips just then.

"Rose, wait!" Ian called as she sullenly made to leave their office. She paused at the door, her hand on the handle and seriously debating whether to ignore him and just flee. They'd been sat in there for the past hour without so much as breathing a word to each other and now he wanted to talk? She didn't feel particularly guilty for resting him right now.

"What?" she sighed and slowly turned round to face him.

He'd left his seat at the head of the conference table but he hadn't approached her. He was merely leaning against the table, his arms folded across his chest.

"We need to deal with the current situation of our relationship," Ian said heavily and Rose sagged against the door. _Was_ there something that needed to be dealt with?

"What is it?"

Ian continued to stare at her pensively for a few moments before he sighed and unfolded his arms to bring them to grip the table behind him, his shoulders losing their tension. "This isn't working; this relationship has been deteriorating for a few weeks now and I… I'm unwilling to restore anything."

Two days before Valentine's day; hell of a timing.

Pressure was steadily building up behind Rose' eyes and within her chest, compressing against her lungs and tear ducts. She forced herself to reply, her voice only just managing to make it across the arid desert that was her throat. Even so, the effort was unbalanced with what came out. "Okay."

Ian's eyes were dark and penetrative as he studied her scientifically and when no more words were exchanged and the pregnant silence stretched on, Rose fumbled for the door handle behind her and conceded that leaving before her tears gave way would be a good thing to do.

Before she could leave, Ian's voice gently acknowledged her, a whisper of regret against her ear. "I'm sorry."

She knew he was. But still…

"No, _I'm_ sorry," she managed to croak out before she closed the door behind her and left, her feet retracing the time old route to Ravenclaw Tower. The tears spilled forth onto her cheeks before she could keep them in check and a distant part of her was eternally grateful that there weren't many students out this evening. The bigger part of her was most concentrated on ignoring the heaviness all over her body and trying to navigate her way through the blurry crystal barrier of tears before her eyes.

She rounded the corner on the empty sixth floor and had taken no more than a few steps before her body collided unwelcomingly with another, harder body. Her own form already suffering from the blow of a few moments ago, she was unable to maintain her balance and stumbled, uncertain on her feet. Hands tried to grab hers to keep her upright and prevent her from falling but her fingers were wet with the tears she'd tried to brush away and they slipped through those soft, gallant hands as she fell to the floor and collapsed.

Her Thursday was certainly complete now. Sniffling loudly and brushing away her current tears with a soft flick, Rose looked up to see who had caused her fall.

No.

_Now_, her Thursday was most definitely complete.

Scorpius blinked down at her, his eyes smoking with confusion and dispute as he took her in.

She bowed her head in order to allow her hair to fall on either side of her face and block her red, wet eyes from his view but the next thing she knew he had knelt beside her and was brushing her auburn hair behind her ears and lightly lifting her chin. She silently willed him to leave her alone to her tears and her humiliation, to lose this latest characteristic of chivalry and just laugh in her face, remind her of Vivienne and cut her open. Wide open and leave her to bleed and scar.

He didn't.

"Rosie," he quietly murmured as her tears began with a renewed forced and racked her entire body. His hands lightly pulled her towards him, his fingers creeping up her cheek delicately to swipe at her tears. "What happened?"

_You happened. Then you didn't. Then you did again. Then you didn't again. _

Her lips remained sealed shut and she shook her head, scrambling away from him but he drew her back to him firmly and her body was too weak to fully remonstrate.

"Rose, tell me what's wrong," he coaxed gently as he stroked her hair and Rose let out a choked sob on his shoulder. "Was it Miller?" His growled lowly and there was no mistaking the menace in his tone.

Rose shook her head and pulled back, battling relentlessly with herself to stop her tears and partially succeeded as she swiped away at the wetness beneath her lashes. Scorpius made to pull her back in to him but she quickly stood up and backed away a few steps.

"It wasn't Ian," she said sombrely. "Don't' go picking a fight with him; you have no right."

Judging by the hard set of his jaw, Scorpius didn't like that. He scowled at her for a few moments before he sighed lightly and ran his hand through his hair as he stood up. "Won't you at least tell me what happened?"

Silence pervaded as Rose thought of a reply that was appropriate to the situation until she breathed almost inaudibly, "It has nothing to do with you."

And she turned on her heel and left, her tears threatening to make a renewed appearance.

Nicholas fell down in the opposing chair by the window and stared silently at the reserved Scorpius for a few moments before he broke the silence.

"Are you going to tell me what the miracle is that has had you silent and contemplative for the past twenty-four hours?"

Scorpius remained silent.

Nick huffed crossly. "Fine, don't tell me." And he proceeded to pout.

More minutes of silence passed with Scorpius staring out the window without really seeing anything and Nick glaring at him before Scorpius declared softly, "Rose and Miller broke up."

Nick toppled to the floor and the commotion caused Scorpius to fully snap out of his musings.

"What the..? Get off the floor, Nick; it's not a life-changing declaration," he rolled his eyes.

"Of course it is! Rose is now free for the taking and you want to do the taking… don't you?"

"Yes, yes, of course I do… but… Vivienne," Scorpius exhaled deeply and cradled his head in his hands, his elbows on his knees.

"Don't tell me you're serious about Vivienne," Nick gasped, aghast.

"I'm not," he insisted forcefully enough for Nick to believe him. "But she's a great girl and I don't want to have to hurt her by leaving her for Rose."

"Yeah, but if you don't go after Rose now I don't think you'll ever get another chance with her."

So true.

This was such a fucked up mess.

And if he didn't make the right call he would end up _being_ the fucked up mess. He wanted Rose. He _needed _her.

It had arrived.

The one single day in the year where everyone lost their heads and some most likely lost their integrity. For everyone else it was Valentine's Day. For Rose, it was just another blustery Saturday.

It was nearing ten am in the courtyard and she was sat beneath one of the arches trying to engage herself in the heavy Arithmancy tome in her hands and failing quite abysmally. Her mind seemed to prefer watching the idiot population of the school meet up before going down to Hogsmeade.

Currently, she was studiously trying to avoid looking in the direction of the frozen fountain in the middle of the courtyard. To her misfortune, her eyes were disobeying orders from her brain and were continuously shooting surreptitious glances towards the blond stood there.

Scorpius was waiting for Vivienne.

Rose fought to not allow this fact to plunge a dagger into her… and obviously failed. He was shooting glances at her and she'd met his gaze several times in the past few minutes but he didn't approach her and she didn't have the guts to go and offer herself for another dose of hurt.

A grimace pulled across her lips and a painful twist happened in her chest as she caught sight of Vivienne ambling daintily towards Scorpius across the courtyard in tight jeans and a raspberry pink jacket. Her mind and body worked to avoid the following scene but she felt herself compelled to look at the way Scorpius greeted Vivienne.

A fresh wound opened up across her heart as he kissed her in greeting and she looked away pointedly.

She was distracted by a tap on her shoulder and she looked up to see Nick, smiling politely in salutation.

"Hi," he grinned.

"Hi," Rose repeated hoarsely. She secretly damned the clotted heaviness in her throat.

"Sore throat?" Nick asked, calling her on her husky tone.

"Yeah," she repeated her voice still effectively gravely and she coughed for effect. Why disabuse him of his notion and cause herself a major headache? "Going to Hogsmeade?"

"Yeah," he admitted with a bit of a sheepish smile and Rose plastered a devious smile despite herself.

"Who with?"

"Your cousin, Dominique."

Rose just stared. And then she said slowly, "I didn't know she was your type…"

"Half French blonde with veela roots… that's about every guy's type," Nick shrugged.

Yeah, Rose wasn't blind. Dom wasn't suffering boyfriend shortages. Never had.

"Ah yes, so silly of me to forget," Rose drawled and rolled her eyes. "Must make for some rivalry, her being every guy's type?"

"Just a little," Nick nodded, his tongue thick with sarcasm and Rose couldn't contain hr grin. She was really quite glad she'd befriended Nicholas Nott. "So, judging by that nauseatingly thick book, I take it you're not going down to the village?"

"Cupid didn't favour me this year," she said quietly and glanced towards the momentarily forgotten fountain only to find that the vicinity was mercifully empty.

"Oh well, there's always next year," Nick said brightly and she turned a sceptic countenance on him but didn't comment. When her grim expression continued, he sighed beside her. "I'm just saying try to look for a silver lining every now and then. Stop being so pessimistic."

"I'm not pessimistic!" Rose argued with some indignation. "The glass is just half empty and never half full."

"That's _very_ pessimistic," he said, giving her a sombre look and she pulled a face at him before he laughed. Rose allowed a smile before she slowly got up and brushed off her jeans.

"I'll see you later," she said. "Have fun."

"Wait!"

She turned back round leisurely to face him. He'd stood up and was facing her, the patron saint of seriousness.

"What?"

"Come down to Hogsmeade."

Rose blinked, confused. "I don't want to though."

"I know, but I heard HoneyDukes have bought a superb array of products for the day. You may not want to indulge in this day but you look like you could do with a big slab of chocolate."

She could. She really could.

"I don't know… maybe."

"Okay."

And then she left the courtyard, a distinct yearning for chocolate in the pit of her stomach.


	8. Part 8

**Part 8**

Asphyxiation had almost gotten the best of Scorpius when he exited Madam Puddifoot's. He'd felt like he was going to suffocate from the disgustingly decorated, claustrophobic café. Valentine's Day be damned! No one had a valid excuse to glut a place so abundantly in horrific little, pesky cherubs and infuriating fluttering hearts, no matter the holiday.

The blast of cold air that hit his face refreshingly as he walked through the door was like the breath of life and he savoured the moment, enjoying the natural scent to the day in comparison to the sickeningly sweet bouquet the café had seen fit to choke people on.

Vivienne had a slight smile on her face as she looped her arm through his and he did his best to avoid wishing that Rose was the one resting her cheek lightly on his jacket.

"Where do you want to go now?" she mumbled.

Back to the castle, Scorpius felt like saying, but didn't find it sporting to rebuff Vivienne's when he'd only spent more than an hour with her. "Wherever you want to go," he replied, trying to make it sound suggestive but knowing he'd most likely sounded bored.

If he had, Vivienne certainly hadn't noticed. The wattage of her smile soared and before he could comprehend the reason, she was pushing at him so that he stumbled sideways before his back met hard stone and soft, glossed lips met his.

Unable to currently decipher where he was, he kissed her back with enough enthusiasm to mislead her before he pulled back and looked around him. They were in a dark, dank alley, the mouth that lead to the street several metres away. The cobbled floor beneath him was littered in stray-away rubbish and the high, gloomy walls of the surrounding buildings allowed little light to seep in.

"What is this?" he asked a wickedly smiling Vivienne.

"This is my Valentine's gift to you," she smirked and pulled out her wand before she cast a shield charm and a silencing spell on the entrance. Turning back to him, she slipped her wand into her pocket before she was on him once more, a lioness pouncing on her prey. Her lips latched to his, smooth and glossy and yet unpleasant, her hands soft and demanding on his skin and yet unsolicited, her moans sweet and stirring and yet off-putting.

He didn't want this.

But his body did.

A hiss slithered out of his mouth and into hers as his hands ran appreciatively up her sides and he gave a shaky moan of want. Before his body was a passionate seductress; behind his eyes was the soft, innocent image of Rose, naked in his arms, her disposition acquiescent, her heavy hooded eyes and parted lips sweet in lieu of vulgar.

Scorpius pulled back with a gasp, breathing heavily, his eyes snapping open only after mere moments of indulgence in that image. His arms slithered from around Vivienne and he lightly pushed her away, noticing her confusion only for the slightest moments.

"What's wrong?" she whispered as he leaned heavily against the wall.

"N…nothing," he assured panting, and looked up to find Vivienne giving him the most bemused –or was it suspicious?– of looks. "Really, it's nothing."

She hesitated only a second longer before she was once more against him, her warm body taut and young against his and her lips working soothingly at his neck, her fingers lightly pulling his scarf to the side to get better access to his skin. He was bizarrely reminded of vampires.

"I want this," Vivienne murmured throatily to his ear and Scorpius wondered with a groan why this wasn't turning him on like it usually did. Two months, two long, hard months he'd gone without having someone and now when sex was so freely presented to him on a golden platter, he didn't want it. Perhaps he needed to schedule a check-up down at St Mungo's.

His silence was probably condemning him to Vivienne's suspicions so he pulled her closer and slipped his hands lightly underneath her jacket, snuck them beneath her shirt and tickled the satiny, temperate skin underneath. She moaned contentedly against him in appreciation at the movement and he repeated it several times, travelling further down until she was wilting in his arms with gratification.

"Please," she begged breathily, her hands at his waist. "I want you."

"I don't want _you_."

Scorpius hadn't even realized he'd spoken the words aloud until the warmth of Vivienne's body disappeared and she blinked at him with wide, hurt green eyes. Thoughts failed him in that window of time and he couldn't seem to draw up the need to elaborate with words. Who needed further words? Those four had been explicit enough. And probably pretty damn hurtful.

Vivienne had gone deathly still but her body betrayed how she felt; her face was ashen, her fists slightly clenched and her eyes sparkling with unshed tears.

"I see," she finally said thickly, the congestion in her throat smothering the words slightly. Without a further look at him, she left, taking down the shield charm as she did so.

Scorpius was left feeling queasy.

And oddly liberated.

Rose was peculiarly satisfied as she sat up from her hunched position over the table and stared down at her latest completed essay. Considering all circumstances she should've been moping around the castle and cursing pointless holidays meant to embarrass most people and ridicule everyone else. But somehow exhibiting admirable common sense, she'd opted to grab her books and head to the library to complete the essays that had been set and some of the schoolwork she'd been falling behind on.

Come tomorrow, she'd be leisurely and smugly free to do as she wished whilst she basked in everyone else's misery at having to waste their Sunday on essays. It was oddly… satisfying.

Her back hurt and her neck cricked from the several hours she'd been sat in her chair and her muscles complained when she sat up and stretched. Quite at a loss as to how to kill the rest of the day, she packed her things and made her way out of the almost deserted library. Nick's words rang in her head and her craving for chocolate heightened. Maybe she did need to pop down and replenish her chocolate stock.

The corridors were quiet and peacefully empty and Rose hummed slightly to herself as she made her way towards Ravenclaw tower, quite lost in her disconnected thoughts and rendition of a piano piece she'd heard at her grandparents'.

"Grand," a spiteful voice sounded and Rose pulled out of her thoughts to find herself not many feet away from a red-nosed, red-eyed Vivienne, handkerchief in hand.

Rose fought hard not to discern what this sight might mean but her brain had already jumped miles ahead and was drawing its own conclusions. She wanted to ignore her, she really did, but a vindictive little side of her wanted to pick at some wounds.

"Oh, it is grand," she agreed arrogantly, "but are we talking about my day or yours?"

"Piss off, Weasley," Vivienne snapped and Rose' smile extended in size but did not reach her cold eyes.

"Such language, Miss Harris," Rose mocked patronizingly. "I hope you don't kiss your boyfriend with such a crass mouth."

"No, I leave that to you, don't I?"

Rose blinked. The statement was vicious, cold and accusing. "I only kissed Scorpius once," she saw fit to remind the brunette with a hiss.

"Just once before my eyes. How many times did you sneak off with him behind my back?" she accused loutishly. "You told me yourself he wasn't one for sticking to one girl and you're not exactly the patron saint of perfection, are you, Weasley? No, just another ginger whore." The vehement speech was completed with an upturned sneer and Rose' jaw fell only briefly before she collected herself and rebuked.

"Ginger whores beat brunette harpies any day," she affected a sweet, cruel smile before it slipped off and she continued. "I think if given the choice, Scorpius would go for a whore before a harpy any day. You know how boys are; they'd prefer a writhing whore beneath them to make them feel good instead of a harpy to claw their eyes out."

Vivienne glared death upon Rose and her eyes flashed hatred. Smirking triumphantly, Rose continued on her way to the tower.

The Hog's Head had always been and would always be a dodgy place for dodgy dealings. Scorpius had long given up inspecting the clientele in favour of the Firewhiskey that had been given to him without question by the young bartender when he'd demanded it ten minutes ago.

The sensible, contrasting choice to this action would be to seek out Rose and beg for her take him back but he was afraid she'd reject him once again and had decided some Dutch courage before he faced her might be a good idea.

The Firewhiskey smoothly slid down his throat, burned unpleasantly for a few brief seconds and he lowered his glass slowly, his eyes going down with it and focusing on a burnt ring on the wooden bar. There was the sound of the pub's door opening and a cold gust stealing across the room but Scorpius kept his head down, too apathetic to bother looking up. Only when he raised the Firewhiskey once more to his lips did he manage to see who was stood at the door, nervously taking in her surroundings with poorly-veiled disdain.

Rose met his eyes and smiled timidly as he sputtered on his drink and gaped. What the fuck was she doing here? She was attracting attention from the unsavoury regulars as she went over to him –wrong attention; one wizard with a cane was leering appreciatively at her- and stopped just before him.

"Rose," he said stupidly and then remained quiet. He had no idea what to say to her… although his mind was telling him an inquiring 'what in Merlin's name are you doing here?' would've been a better alternative.

Rose didn't respond. Taking him completely by surprised, she bent down and cupped his face in her hands before pressing her lips firmly against his and beginning a searing kiss that was exuding longing, desire, penance and above all, love. Scorpius had no choice but to respond in kind. His lips gently caressed hers in a needy way that was far from desultory and just… perfect. He would never grow tired of kissing her; he _wanted_ to grow old kissing her. Around them, wolf-whistles and catcalls had erupted around the pub and the clientele were sniggering at the teenagers, too taken with each other to break apart and respond to the ruckus.

When Rose chose to deepen the kiss, he moaned shamelessly against her lips and pulled her tighter to him, needing to feel her proximity, wanting to melt into her and her warmth. She smiled against his lips before she pulled back breathlessly, giggling lightly and smiling at him. Scorpius found he was unable to do anything but stare up at her in awe.

"I love you," he said plainly and grasped the cold fingers of her right hand in both his own hands to raise them to his lips and press a long, sweet kiss there, his eyes never leaving hers. Rose blushed a brilliant scarlet but smiled contently as she released her fingers from his hand only to emulate what he had done and raised his hand to her lips.

"I love you too," she mumbled against his knuckles before brushing her lips lightly, briefly, against his skin and blinking innocently up at him with her brilliant eyes.

Scorpius wanted to kiss her again in that moment, to consummate their declarations with a soul-searing kiss that would forever claim his heart as hers and hers as his. But the regulars were getting a little too fresh for his liking and spurred by some Dutch courage they began hollering crude remarks at the pair and suggestions for some more carnal activities.

"Oi, Ginger! Blondie! 'Ow about givin' us a show on one of the tables?" one asked lasciviously with a leer and a cackle and his fellows sniggered and shouted their approval. Rose turned to them ominously.

"Well, I'm game but I'm not sure any amount of live porn could arouse a dick like you," she replied with biting sarcasm at the man before she turned to Scorpius, her eyes beseeching with him for an escape. "Let's get out of here," she implored with a whisper meant only for his ears.

Scorpius nodded and threw a galleon on the counter before he picked up his Firewhiskey and downed half of it in one gulp before coming back up with a shudder and holding it out for Rose. She raised an eyebrow deviously as she looked between him and the tumbler.

"You'll thank me later," he murmured and raised it to her lips where she too took a long gulp and released a shaking gasp when he pulled it away from her mouth. "Feel good?"

"Yes," she agreed with a smile. "Now let's go."

The Shrieking Shack was only a five minute walk from the Hog's Head and Scorpius stopped short as he set eyes on the building Rose was currently pulling him in the direction of, giggling happily in a way that soothed him to the very core.

"The Shrieking Shack?" he asked suspiciously.

Rose turned round and tugged at his fingers. "Not scared, I hope?" she teased with a grin.

"What's in the Shrieking Shack?" he continued to probe, his heels digging into the cold floor as Rose tried in futile to continue pulling him towards what was notably Britain's most haunted dwelling.

He recognized exasperation on her features the moment she stopped once more and turned to face him in all her seriousness. It was comforting in a way. No anger, no bitterness, no loathing to taint the features he'd come to find himself in love with.

"My secret ghost boyfriend," Rose replied sultrily and stepped closer to him. "I just wanted a second opinion before things got serious, you know."

"Ha ha," Scorpius drawled, unamused. "Seriously."

"It's just an empty building," Rose explained with a shrug, stepping closer still until she was pressed against him gloriously and her hands were wrapping around his waist as she smiled smugly up at him, complacently. "My cousin told me how to get into it during third year and I found an old bedroom that I restored. I've wanted to use it for quite a few years now but the opportune moment never presented itself…"

Comprehension dawned on Scorpius as he took in her heavy lidded, diluted eyes. "Until now," he completed her sentence hoarsely and she nodded. His legs went weak but he forced himself to stay upright. Pressing his forehead to hers he whispered softly, "I love you. I love you. _I love you_."

Her eyes closed prettily in a flutter as if to savour the taste of the words on her ears but she whispered back all the same pertinently. "You were a complete bastard but I loved you. Even after last year, even after Samantha and Marissa and Vivienne; I _still_ love you."

When her eyes opened it was to find him looking anguished. "I don't deserve your love after all that I did."

"Then prove to me that you do," Rose advised in a genteel tone and her hand left his waist to wrap around his neck and ever so lightly run her thumb along his strong jaw line. "I don't want to let you go but I can't help but still have my suspicions. Love me and expel those silly suspicions. It's what I want you to do."

Recently he'd taken to feeling she was too good for him to justify why she wasn't his again. Too smart, too beautiful, too kind, too everything for him but when she said things like that and made him just a bit better than feeling like shit and feel as if he had an actual chance with her, he knew that she was too good for him. Too good for him and perfect for him.

"Can I have you?" he mumbled against her lips. "Do I get to keep you?"

"As long as you try to keep me," she said with a reassuring smile that seemed almost ethereal and foreign on her lips.

"Always," he promised and pressed an ingenuous, childlike kiss to her lips that lasted for the merest fraction of a second but was more than enough to soothe the ache for her had that had started to flame around his system.

"I love you, you sap," she then giggled suddenly and pulled back, her arms still around his neck.

Scorpius loved it when she giggled out declarations of love.

"Going to take me to your restored bedroom then?" he asked cockily and extracted himself from her arms but only to wrap an arm about her waist and pull her with him towards the Shrieking Shack.

"Yes, but I have a gift for you first," she grinned and he stopped once more to see that she was pulling out a gift wrapped box out of one of her coat pockets.

His features took on a bemused countenance. "When did you have the time between finding out I'd broken up with Vivienne to seeking me out to buy a present?"

"I bumped into Vivienne when she came back and yeah, the present is used –sorry- but you'll really like it."

Still giving her the suspicious eye, he lifted the lid off the box and stared at the item inside amidst the tissue paper before he let out a long, loud bubble of laughter and wrapped his arms about her, swiping her clean off her feet and twirling her around as she wrapped her arms around him tightly and gave a delighted scream of alarm and exhilaration.

When he put her down, he took the camera out of the box and inspected it closely. "Best present I've ever had," he mumbled more to himself but Rose heard him and laughed.

"I destroyed the old pictures and I realized I wanted a brand new, more daring set," she explained innocently and he looked up from the camera to her smouldering gaze.

"You're a kinky bitch, Weasley," Scorpius complimented with no bite. "I suppose _I'll_ have to take all the pictures?"

"But don't you know?" she breathed lustfully. "This is a paired assignment. I can't allow you to take all the credit. And all the fun."

"Kinky bitch," Scorpius confirmed again before he kissed her fully and she responded with furore. Rose Weasley was officially his. He didn't plan on losing her again to his own stupidity. Nor did he plan on letting that present go to waste.

Alaric McCarthy might be getting an owl to develop some new pictures sooner than he had hoped.

**A/N: So… This wasn't exactly how I'd imagined it to end. I had a very similar (yet dissimilar) ending but I forgot to note it down and forgot it but it did have shared elements with this ending. I also toyed with the possibility of Scorpius actually publishing the pictures and humiliating Rose but it turned out to be more convoluted than I had hoped. I also didn't expect it to be this long -37k is pretty long for what I intended to be a 10k story but you know, once you get writing it just starts to come out and the only way to end it and give it some meaning is to write more. Ironic, really. This work took me four months to write believe it or not (during summer holidays too) but I lost my muse halfway through and there was an unbelievable heat wave for two weeks here that I mostly slept through. **

**As always, feedback is adored and; I do read each and every single review I get and feel grateful to those who are keen to give their opinions. **

**Sera**

**In Loving Memory of Z.Z. May you be at peace, forever. 2-11-2010**


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